Asked on Sky News Australia whether Australia would send a shipment, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said: “We give appropriate consideration to all requests, we do so in a diplomatic manner and we give them appropriate consideration.”
“We have been very clear that, through economic support measures, a group of Australian soldiers last week headed to the UK to conduct further training for Ukrainians in order to assist the war effort in which they are involved.” ” He said.
Russia targeted Ukraine's energy infrastructure. The Kakhovka Dam in southern Ukraine was destroyed last year.credit: Planet Laboratories PBC/AP
He added: “We will continue to engage in a mature and thoughtful way with Ukraine. We stand with Ukraine no matter what it takes.”
Starting in April, the country's nuclear power plants – which now produce more than 55% of its electricity needs – will need urgent repair work and those power supplies will need to be replaced with coal-fired plants, Galoshenko said.
Most of Ukraine's large coal mines are located in the east of the country, near the Russian border and the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, where the bulk of the fighting has taken place over the nearly two-year conflict.
Some areas had access to electricity, heating and internet for only a few hours a day, while hospitals, businesses and families were forced to resort to expensive diesel generators. The World Bank recently estimated that Ukraine's energy sector suffered losses worth US$12 billion (US$18 billion) during the war.
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Galoshenko said that Ukraine invested heavily in preparing for this harsh winter, spending large sums of money on repair, reconstruction and defense. But he said Russian forces and drone strikes even targeted maintenance crews sent to replace damaged transformers, transmission lines and interconnections after the areas were plunged into darkness for several consecutive days.
He said that at times up to 30 percent of Ukraine's energy infrastructure was attacked in a single day as Russia used missiles and drones to target energy facilities and left no thermal or hydropower plant untouched.
Before the war, the Ukrainian government planned to reduce the country's dependence on coal-fired power plants and increase the production of nuclear energy and natural gas.
Ukraine depends on imports for about 83% of its crude oil consumption, 33% of natural gas, and 50% of coal, according to the latest data issued by the International Energy Agency.
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So far, it has obtained additional supplies from several coal-rich countries such as the United States, Colombia, Australia and Kazakhstan, among other suppliers.
Despite good planning, Ukraine's energy resilience remains an “everyday issue” and could change radically if Vladimir Putin's attacks become more sophisticated and targeted or there is a prolonged cold snap, Galoshenko said.
