US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken promised again on Tuesday to “work tirelessly with the G7 and other partners to repair, replace and protect Ukraine’s energy infrastructure”, but these efforts are accompanied by certain difficulties.
He writes about it CNN.
The initial tranche of American electrical equipment, which contained such important elements as automatic switches, relays, disconnectors, arrived in Ukraine more than a week ago as part of the Biden administration’s multimillion-dollar aid to support the Ukrainian energy system.
However, according to a high-ranking American official, the repair of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure damaged by Russian attacks is complicated by a shortage of the necessary components and the incompatibility of equipment that may be transferred to Kyiv by Western partners.
In particular, the United States and its partners faced the problem of disrupting the global supply chain of equipment needed for repair. Washington is trying to overcome these difficulties together with the private sector.
In addition, some of the critical power grid repair components used in the United States are not compatible in Ukraine because they are designed to operate on different frequency bands.
In this regard, the United States hopes that the provision of air defense systems will help counter Russian attacks on Ukrainian critical infrastructure, so that equipment provided by the United States and partners is not destroyed.
In the short term, the US is trying to determine the location of critical infrastructure objects of priority for the Ukrainian side, which will be used to support vital utility services even in the event of a blackout.
