Russia-Ukraine WarU.S. Seeks to Rally Aid for Ukraine’s Crippled Power Grid

U.S. officials hope the new aid for Ukraine’s energy grid will spur donations from other nations.

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Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the NATO Foreign Ministers Meeting in Bucharest, Romania, on Tuesday.Credit...Robert Ghement/EPA, via Shutterstock

BUCHAREST, Romania — The United States is giving Ukraine $53 million to buy badly needed equipment to help repair its battered electricity grid after weeks of Russian aerial strikes, emphasizing an urgent new front in the global efforts to help Ukraine after allies have already provided billions in military aid.

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken made the pledge on Tuesday in Romania during a meeting of the Group of 7 nations on the sidelines of a two-day conclave of foreign ministers of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Top diplomats from more than 30 European nations had traveled to Bucharest for talks on how to best bolster Ukraine’s defenses against the invasion begun in February by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

A senior State Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic negotiations, said American officials hope the new promise of electrical equipment will spur other countries to announce their own infrastructure aid packages for Ukraine, where millions of residents are living without power and water because of recent Russian missile and drone strikes.

Russian commanders have sent wave after wave of missiles and drones to hit Ukraine’s transmission grid, including high-voltage transformer stations, which are more vulnerable than power plants.

American and European officials say Moscow is trying to break the morale of Ukrainians by depriving them of basic utilities like heat and water over the winter, when average temperatures across Ukraine drop below freezing.

The Americans are aiming to pull together a working group to help Ukraine repair its energy infrastructure on an emergency basis and to better defend it power plants and energy grid from attack. The energy group would be modeled on the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, which organizes the delivery of weapons and other military aid to Ukraine, a second State Department official said, also requesting anonymity to discuss diplomatic negotiations.

The energy “contact group” would be centered on the Group of 7 nations. The first meeting focused on such aid took place at the gathering of the Group of 7 foreign ministers in early November in Münster, Germany, where officials pledged to help Ukraine rebuild and defend its infrastructure. The next meeting is expected to take place next month in Paris.

The $53 million announced Tuesday would be used to buy a range of important equipment, including distribution transformers and circuit breakers, the State Department said. The U.S. government would buy the equipment and transfer it to Ukraine, focusing first on what can be shipped there fastest, a third official said. The Biden administration has already identified $30 million of equipment, including from Department of Energy stocks, the official said.

The department said the $53 million is in addition to $55 million in emergency energy sector support for generators and other equipment already promised to Ukraine by the United States.

Other countries have provided some support to Ukraine’s energy sector, including Lithuania, and Canada. The European Union announced over the weekend that it was preparing to deliver 200 transformers and 40 heavy generators.

Ukrainian leaders say they also need more air defense systems from the United States and its allies to protect infrastructure and civilian areas from Russian attacks.

Mr. Blinken took part Tuesday in talks with Romanian leaders and attended NATO sessions on the war, then met with officials from the Group of 7 nations.

‘NATO’s door is open’: The alliance’s top official affirms a pledge that Ukraine will join one day.

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NATO’s general secretary Jens Stoltenberg speaking to the press before the Foreign Ministers Meeting in Bucharest today.Credit...Robert Ghement/EPA, via Shutterstock

BUCHAREST, Romania — NATO allies on Tuesday reaffirmed their longstanding commitment that Ukraine would one day become a member, sticking firmly to a stance that has long antagonized Moscow.

The NATO foreign ministers made the pledge at a meeting on Tuesday in Bucharest, shortly before the United States announced more aid to help Ukraine repair its badly damaged energy infrastructure and restore service to civilians suffering through the winter cold.

In the morning, ahead of the meeting in Bucharest, the alliance’s general secretary, Jens Stoltenberg, said with unusual emotion that “NATO’s door is open” and that Russia would never have a veto on the decisions of democratic states.

It was during a NATO summit in the same city in 2008 that the United States forced through a controversial promise that Ukraine and Georgia would join the alliance some day, though the timing was never spelled out.

The promise was opposed at the time by Germany and France, which argued that Ukraine and Georgia were far from ready, and that the proposal would be an unnecessary provocation to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

Four months later, Russian troops invaded parts of Georgia, and some have argued that Mr. Putin has been trying ever since to make sure that NATO’s vows to expand to include more former Soviet states proved hollow.

Remembering that he attended the 2008 summit meeting as Norway’s prime minister, Mr. Stoltenberg said on Tuesday: “We stand by those decisions. NATO’s door is open. We have demonstrated that NATO’s door is open by recently allowing Montenegro and North Macedonia to become members, despite having Russian protests, demonstrating that Russia does not have a veto. It’s for the 30 allies and aspirant countries to decide on membership, no one else.”

Despite Russian objections and threats, Finland and Sweden will soon join NATO, Mr. Stoltenberg said. “So we demonstrate that NATO’s door is open not only with words, but in deeds, and that was part of the decision we made in Bucharest,” he said. “Then we also made the decision on Ukraine specifically. And we stand by that too, on membership for Ukraine.”

The statement from NATO’s allies on Tuesday does not mean Ukraine will join the alliance soon, even though the country’s ambition to become a member has been part of its constitution since 2019.

One reason is that admitting a country requires unanimous consent from all NATO members, and the alliance — predicated on the doctrine of mutual defense — is highly unlikely to admit a country already at war. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine earlier this year signaled that his country needed to accept that it might never join.

Mr. Stoltenberg said that what was important now was to support Ukraine, a democratic country, in its battle against “a brutal invasion and a war of aggression,” and to reject “this idea that NATO enlargement is kind of aggressive,” he said. “NATO enlargement is the result of democratic decisions taken by democratic nations.”

It is not NATO that Mr. Putin fears, Mr. Stoltenberg asserted. “I think what he’s afraid of is democracy and freedom, and that’s the main challenge for him,” Mr. Stoltenberg said. “And he doesn’t want that, and that’s the reason why he has invaded Ukraine.”

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Ukraine’s first lady addresses British lawmakers, calling for ‘justice.’

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Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, outside Downing Street in London on Monday. She told British lawmakers that Russia had committed thousands of documented war crimes.Credit...Peter Nicholls/Reuters

LONDON — In a speech to Britain’s lawmakers in Westminster on Tuesday, Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, called for accountability for the terror Russia is inflicting on the Ukrainian people.

“Victory is not the only thing we need,” she said. “We need justice.”

In comments that repeatedly referred to World War II, Ms. Zelenska recalled that 80 years ago in London, the Allies signed the declaration that became the basis for the Nuremberg trials, which brought many perpetrators of Nazi war crimes to justice.

Ms. Zelenska said that Ukrainians have documented thousands of war crimes committed by Russia, and called for the institution of an international tribunal to prosecute them, including the “primary crime” of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.

“Ukraine, Europe and the world need that type of justice now,” she said. “And it can be started in London again.”

The lawmakers gave Ms. Zelenska long standing ovations both before and after her speech in a room at Westminster that was decorated with the British and the Ukrainian flags. Lindsay Hoyle, the speaker of the house, said, “Just as we must not forget the Holocaust, we cannot deny that it’s happening again.”

A day earlier, Ms. Zelenska spoke at an international conference in London focused on preventing sexual violence in conflicts. There, she accused Russia of systematically using rape as a weapon of war in Ukraine. On Tuesday, she told the British lawmakers that Ukraine’s youngest wartime rape victim was 4 and the oldest was 85.

Ms. Zelenska also visited Downing Street on Monday, meeting with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s wife, Akshata Murty. The two first ladies were pictured hanging Christmas decorations in the prime minister’s offices.

Ms. Zelenska told BBC’s Radio 4 that she hoped that the approaching Christmas festivities did not make British people “forget about our tragedy” or “get used to our suffering.”

The Wagner Group’s founder says a Zambian killed in Ukraine was recruited as a mercenary while in prison.

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The opening of the PMC Wagner Centre office block, associated with the founder of the Wagner private military group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, in early November.Credit...Olga Maltseva/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

A Zambian student who was killed while fighting in the war in Ukraine had been recruited from a Russian penal colony by the private military force known as the Wagner Group, the businessman who controls the security company, Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, said in a statement on Tuesday.

Mr. Prigozhin’s account could not be independently confirmed. But his statement comes two weeks after Zambia’s Foreign Ministry called on Moscow to explain how Lemekhani Nathan Nyirenda, a 23-year-old student at the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute, “could have been recruited to fight in Ukraine and subsequently lose his life.”

Mr. Nyirenda had been serving a nine-and-half-year term in Tyer prison outside Moscow, the ministry said, though it did not elaborate on why he had been imprisoned. The Foreign Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

Mr. Prigozhin, a close ally of Mr. Putin who was indicted by the United States for meddling in the 2016 elections, acknowledged his connection to the Wagner Group after a video emerged in September in which he is seen offering convicts a release from prison in exchange for six months of combat duty in Ukraine. The video was verified by The New York Times.

Russia, which has been desperate for more soldiers to fight in its war, imposed a “partial mobilization” this fall. Experts believe that Mr. Prigozhin’s recent publicity effort could be part of a drive to attract more recruits.

When the Wagner Group was created in 2014, it supported the Kremlin’s first incursions into eastern Ukraine. Since then, the group has been deployed in military campaigns in Syria, Libya, Mozambique and Mali.

Rights groups have accused the Wagner Group of mass executions and looting private property in conflict zones. British intelligence has estimated that at least 1,000 of the group’s fighters have been part of the conflict in Ukraine.

In a statement published by one of his companies, Concord Management and Consulting, Mr. Prigozhin said that he had met Mr. Nyirenda in the Tver Oblast, northwest of Moscow, and that Mr. Nyirenda “was one of the first to break into the enemy’s trenches on Sept. 22.”

He added that Mr. Nyirenda had “showed bravery and valor. And he died a hero.” His account could not be confirmed.

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Poland says it will ask Ukrainian refugees to pay some housing and food costs next year.

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Volunteers taking care of Ukrainian children in Ustka, Poland.Credit...Maciek Nabrdalik for The New York Times

Poland’s government wants Ukrainian refugees to begin paying for some of their government-provided housing and food by early next year, the Polish Prime Minister’s office said on Tuesday, and the Council of Ministers adopted draft legislation to that end, which is expected to pass easily in Parliament.

Poland has borne the brunt of Europe’s biggest exodus since World War II, as millions of Ukrainians fleeing the war have crossed into the country since February.

Most have since moved on to other countries or returned home, but as of earlier this month, nearly 1.5 million citizens of Ukraine were registered as refugees in Poland.

By year’s end, Poland will have spent more on housing, health and other services for Ukrainians than any European country, according to a recent study by the Polish Economic Institute. As the country, like much of Europe, copes with inflation and high gas prices, there are signs that fatigue may be setting in with some slice of the Polish electorate.

In June, the government announced significant cuts in support for Ukrainians, saying that it would withdraw daily allowances to refugees and cancel payments to Polish families hosting them. But most of those cuts, which were supposed to start months ago, have not taken effect because of opposition from municipal governments.

The new measures announced by the central government, which are expected to come into effect on March 1, will apply to Ukrainian refugees who have stayed in the country for more than four months.

The resolution proposes that Ukrainian citizens staying in “collective accommodation centers,” which are government-funded lodgings, be charged for 50 percent of their housing costs, up to $8.83 each day per person, if they stay in Poland for more than 120 days. Refugees who stay over 180 days will be charged for 75 percent of their housing costs, up to $13.25 each day per person.

These rules will not affect many people, because few Ukrainians are staying in these centers anymore, with most having moved into private rental apartments or other private housing.

Poland took steps this year to make it easier for thousands of Ukrainian refugees to enter the labor market. People who cannot work because of a disability, their age, pregnancy or the need to take care of children will be exempt from making these payments, the prime minister’s office said.

NATO foreign ministers begin two days of meetings with a show of unity in support of Ukraine.

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NATO’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, center, at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers on Tuesday in Bucharest, Romania.Credit...Andrei Pungovschi/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

BUCHAREST, Romania — Top diplomats from more than 30 nations began a two-day meeting in Romania on Tuesday in a show of unity against Russia’s war in Ukraine, with a focus on how NATO can bolster Ukraine’s war efforts over a winter that promises to be extraordinarily harsh.

“NATO is stronger and more united than at any time I can remember,” the U.S. secretary of state, Antony J. Blinken, said at a news conference on Tuesday with Jens Stoltenberg, the alliance’s secretary general, before the meetings got underway. “We will be reaffirming our support for Ukraine as we go forward.”

The officials are laying the groundwork for how the alliance will continue to aid Ukraine at a time when weather might limit military gains and as millions of Ukrainian civilians lack access to electricity and water because of damage to infrastructure facilities from Russian strikes. The relentless missile, artillery and drone attacks are intended to demoralize the country as temperatures fall well below freezing in much of the country.

A State Department official said the Russian military was targeting Ukraine’s transmission grid, including high-voltage transformer stations, because they were more vulnerable than power generation sites. He estimated that 25 to 30 percent of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure had been damaged.

NATO countries have so far provided some $40 billion in weaponry to Ukraine, roughly the size of France’s annual defense budget. But Ukraine has been tearing through stockpiles, setting off a scramble to supply the country with what it needs while also replenishing NATO members’ arsenals. Many Western-made howitzers are breaking due to the rate of use by Ukrainian troops.

Officials said they planned to discuss further weapons shipments to Ukraine, as well as how to help repair Ukraine’s electricity grid and defend the country’s critical infrastructure. Mr. Blinken said the United States is giving Ukraine $53 million to buy badly needed equipment to help repair its electricity grid.

“NATO will continue to stand for Ukraine as long as it takes,’” Mr. Stoltenberg said as the diplomats gathered. “We will not back down.”

The Russian military has suffered major setbacks in the face of Ukrainian offensives in recent months, including being forced to retreat from the strategic southern city of Kherson and the Kharkiv region in the northeast.

The meeting is taking place in Bucharest, the capital of Romania, a NATO member country that shares a border with Ukraine. Mr. Blinken held separate meetings with top Romanian officials on Tuesday morning, and said that the United States would work with the country to help it achieve energy independence from Russia and to build up its military capabilities.

The meeting this week is also expected to feature discussion of how to better protect the member nations that are in closest proximity to Ukraine, including Poland and Romania, from any potential spillover from the conflict. The topic took on a renewed sense of urgency this month when a missile that NATO leaders said appeared to have been fired by Ukraine’s air defense killed two civilians in southeastern Poland.

The foreign ministers of Sweden and Finland, which both applied for NATO membership after Mr. Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February, were in attendance, as were top diplomats from Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Mr. Stoltenberg and the U.S. State Department also said that officials would discuss the global challenges posed by China, Russia’s most powerful strategic partner.

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Why the Ukrainian flag is flying everywhere in Maine.

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A Ukrainian flag on the front door of a home in Skowhegan, Maine.Credit...John Tully for The New York Times

Across Maine, the yellow and blue Ukrainian banner flutters from flagpoles and decorates lobster buoys and barn doors, clapboard houses sprayed with sea salt and cabins nestled in pine forests.

Unlike in cities like New York and Chicago, where symbols of Ukrainian pride in part reflect a large diaspora community, there are few people of Ukrainian heritage in Maine. But the flag’s widespread presence in the state shows another kind of solidarity. Mainers like to say theirs is a flinty spirit, born of enduring harsh winters and an equally harsh economy.

“People over there are doing a good job fighting for their land and their survival, and we in Maine, we like that,” said Elaine Johnston, who owns a hardware store with her husband. “We sell flags to people who feel the way we do.”

Ms. Johnston’s family came to the United States from Finland, which was invaded by the Soviet Union early in World War II. Her grandmother arrived in Maine as a little girl, trading one snowy land for another.

“We know how it feels for the Ukrainians,” she said.

Artillery is breaking in Ukraine. It’s becoming a problem for the Pentagon.

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Western-made artillery pieces like the M777s sent by the Pentagon gave Ukrainian soldiers a lifeline.Credit...Libkos/Associated Press

Ukrainian troops fire thousands of explosive shells at Russian targets every day, using high-tech cannons supplied by the United States and its allies. But those weapons are burning out after months of overuse, or being damaged or destroyed in combat, and dozens have been taken off the battlefield for repairs, according to U.S. and Ukrainian officials.

A third of the roughly 350 Western-made howitzers donated to Kyiv are out of action at any given time, according to U.S. defense officials and others familiar with Ukraine’s defense needs.

Swapping out a howitzer’s barrel, which can be 20 feet long and weigh thousands of pounds, is beyond the capability of soldiers in the field and has become a priority for the Pentagon’s European Command, which has set up a repair facility in Poland.

Western-made artillery pieces gave Ukrainian soldiers a lifeline when they began running low on ammunition for their own Soviet-era howitzers, and keeping them in action has become as important for Ukraine’s allies as providing them with enough ammunition.

The effort to repair the weapons in Poland, which has not previously been reported, began in recent months. The condition of Ukraine’s weapons is a closely held matter among U.S. military officials, who declined to discuss details of the program.

“With every capability we give to Ukraine, and those our allies and partners provide, we work to ensure that they have the right maintenance sustainment packages to support those capabilities over time,” Lt. Cmdr. Daniel Day, a spokesman for the U.S. European Command, said in a statement.

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