The UN refugee agency has warned that people in Ukraine are facing a harsh winter due to an energy crisis caused by Russian attacks, and that they need more help to get through the cold months.
“Energy, energy, energy. I have never seen such an agreement. They are really concerned about this issue,” Filippo Grandi, head of the UN refugee agency, told MTI after his meetings with Ukrainian officials, noting that people, especially in Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine, are already worried about being left without heat in the winter. “What we need is to maintain the support,” Grandi added.
The UNHCR has seen a slight increase in the number of refugees from Ukraine in the past two or three months, particularly after the devastating Russian missile attacks on Ukrainian power plants. In his view, the main reason for Ukrainians fleeing abroad is the electricity crisis, not necessarily the military attacks.
Russian missile and drone attacks have destroyed more than nine gigawatts of power generation capacity since March. As a result, power has been cut off for hours across the country since May.
Meanwhile, according to UN estimates, one million people have returned to the country for at least three months as of February 2022. According to Grandi, these were not people who made a quick trip home to look at their house.
Meanwhile, about 6.5 million Ukrainians, or one-seventh of the population, remain outside the country.
At the same time, according to the UNHCR, about 60-70 percent of Ukrainian refugees in Europe want to return to their homeland. According to Grandi, support for Ukraine should be maintained.
Patriot missiles for Ukraine are being prepared more slowly.
Ukraine's defense against Russian invaders also needs U.S.-supplied Patriot missiles, but Reuters according to Their production is progressing more slowly than expected. Washington also wants to involve Japanese factories in order to increase production capacity, but this faces difficulties because of the vital components manufactured by Boeing. However, the American company plans to develop its own production line only by 2027.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries builds 30 PAC-3 missiles a year under U.S. license, and that number could increase to 60.
To ensure that air defense is essential for Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky previously said that Ukraine has only a quarter of the capacity needed to defend against Russian missiles.
