Our appeal proposes 3 urgent actions to secure the energy installations essential to the country's survival and Europe's security.

Ukraine must be given the means to protect and maintain its energy infrastructure, which the Kremlin systematically targets to make the country unlivable. In the run-up to the European Conference "Rebuild Ukraine" approaches, held on November 13 and 14 2024 in Warsaw, a collective of energy and defense experts, academics and citizens have launched an appeal to public authorities to do just that.

It is based on a study carried out by our civil society organisation with the humanitarian association SAFE and the URD group (independent think-tank specialising in the analysis of practices and the development of policies for humanitarian action and the management of fragility).

Russia has been pursuing a strategy of terror in Ukraine for over two years, targeting the civilian population, particularly energy infrastructure, in the hope of breaking their resistance. Moscow's plan is to push the population to despair and the government to surrender, as the entire social and economic fabric is under attack, including food, health, communications, and the activity of administrations and businesses.

The Kremlin's strikes have hit, in particular, the distribution substations of the three nuclear power plants still under Ukrainian control. Serial breakdowns at these plants also threaten Europe and the world with dramatic radioactive fallout.

The Russian strategy has been intensified since March, taking advantage of the shortage of resources that weakens Kyiv's air defense. However, we have the opportunity to thwart this strategy by acting concretely in three directions:

1. Ensure military protection of energy facilities

• To ensure effective defense of the 10 main energy sites to be protected, Ukraine needs 25 air batteries (it currently has only six or seven). We ask that France and Italy send two additional SAMP/T Mamba systems very quickly, which could at least serve as an incentive for other countries to send Patriot batteries. These long-range systems should be supplemented by medium- and short-range batteries. France could also provide more long-range surveillance radars.

• We reiterate our request to allow the destruction by the air defence and aviation of neighbouring countries (Poland and Romania) of devices approaching the EU borders. This would be a measure of legitimate defence against possible damage beyond the Ukrainian borders, but also against the potentially catastrophic consequences for Europe of Russia's deliberate strikes on the three nuclear power plants in Rivne, Khmelnitskyi and South Ukraine.

2 Ensure emergency electricity supply

• In the short term, Ukraine needs medium to high-power cogeneration plants and generators (up to 12 MW), for a total of 1.33 GW, of which about 80% has already been delivered or ordered. The missing 256 MW, or 2,551 generators, would cost about €50 million.

• For the same purpose, it is also necessary to increase EU electricity exports to Ukraine. The latter can currently import up to 1.7 GW from 5 neighbouring countries. We propose that France, which is breaking its export records this year, examine the possibility of participating in exports to Ukraine and in the work necessary to enable them.

3 Rebuild a model Ukrainian energy system for energy transition:

• This involves providing emergency assistance (intervention and repair equipment, reserves of spare parts) for restore bombed sites in real time.

• At the same time, we must help Ukraine pursue a transition strategy that it has already implemented - with its characteristic resilience - as an element of resistance to aggression. By decentralizing and making their energy model multi-source, the Ukrainians have laid the foundations for an energy revolution that could serve as a reference. This involves, in particular, the development of heat/electricity cogeneration and the replacement of damaged or destroyed thermal power plants with renewable energies. France, and particularly local authorities, has the expertise (for example in urban heating and geothermal energy) to support it.

  
  

  The financing of these measures could be provided by the Ukraine Fund set up by France on June 7, but also by the proceeds of frozen Russian public assets, proceeds which the European Commission has finally decided to seize.

Find our appeal here: https://www.pourlukraine.com/post/installations-energetiques-vie-du-pays

And our column in Le Monde , October 9 https://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2024/10/09/il-faut-autorisation-l-ukraine-a-frapper-les-sites-de-lancement-russes-avec-les-armes-que-nous-lui-livrons_6347358_3232.html

Press contacts:

Anne Marleix and Arnaud Levy, contact.presse@pourlukraine.com