EU provides Naftogaz 50 million to defend Ukraine from the cold

Brussels – Support for Naftogaz, the state-owned energy company, in response to enemy strategies. The European Union intervenes to provide assistance to Ukraine in the face of ongoing Russian attacks. The European Commission is providing an additional 50 million euros to enable the country to continue moving forward at a time when the civilian population is being put to the test. “The Russians are bombarding the Ukrainians to freeze them and make them surrender,” said a concerned Kaja Kallas, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, upon her arrival at the Council for the meeting of Foreign Ministers. She announces a debate on “the energy support we can provide, because it is a very harsh winter and Ukrainians are really suffering.” 

The announcement of the loans is part of an all-European agenda on Ukraine, which is being discussed at several levels: the EU Council, the European Commission, and the European Investment Bank (EIB). It is together with the EIB that it becomes possible to support the state energy company, and Nadia Calviño, president of the EU credit institution, is the first to announce the new twelve-star contribution: “As temperatures in Ukraine drop to minus 20 degrees, I am proud to announce that today we have increased our support to Naftogaz, supplementing the 300 million loan and Norway’s 127 million grant with an additional 50 million,” she said, presenting the group’s 2025 results.  This new contribution, she explains, will serve to “replenish gas reserves damaged by Russian attacks and help keep the population warm.”

 The announcement of aid becomes an opportunity for the Commissioner for Enlargement, Marta Kos, to make new accusations against Vladimir Putin’s Russia: “The news coming out of Ukraine every morning is horrific. What Russia is doing is state terrorism. This goes beyond war. People are freezing to death. Many are fleeing Kyiv and other cities.” The EU, she recalls, has worked diligently and determinedly to “stabilise the energy system, but the scale of the Russian attacks is such that Ukraine urgently needs further assistance.” These emergency 50 million euro loans are therefore “one of many additional measures,” and probably not the last: “We are considering all possible options to help the Ukrainian people.”