The United Kingdom will lend its support for Ukraine’s nuclear plants to function. UK Energy Security Secretary Grant Shapps said that the Western European nation will provide power for the latter’s nuclear plants, after he visited the country.
He also said that the UK government will give financial support of £192m loan guarantee to allow a UK-based company to provide Ukraine with uranium enrichment services, a crucial part of nuclear fuel. Ukraine’s electricity majorly works on Nuclear power. However, Russia has captured its largest plant at Zaporizhzhia.
Grant Shapps was visiting Ukraine on Tuesday, during which time he visited a power station, devastated by Russian bombing. During his visit, Shapps met senior Ukrainian ministers and personalities from energy industry in Kyiv to talk about UK’s contribution for the Eastern European nation’s recovery.
The government has declared that it will offer the loan guarantee through UK Export Finance, the nation’s export credit agency, so that Urenco, a firm with its headquarters in the UK, can supply Energoatom, Ukraine’s state nuclear enterprise. This would boost the amount of non-military aid provided by the UK to Ukraine to around £5 billion, according to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.
In addition to maintaining Ukraine’s independence from Russian nuclear fuel, the support would bolster its energy security as it defends itself against the Russian invasion, according to the statement.
Although Ukraine has four nuclear power facilities, including the largest in Europe at Zaporizhzhia, it had been obtaining the majority of its nuclear services and fuel from Russia before the Russian invasion in February 2022.
In order to supply fuel to all of its nuclear power plants, it has been lowering its reliance and struck an agreement with US business Westinghouse in June of last year.
Shapps said, “Our support for Ukraine is unwavering in the face of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s barbaric invasion – the UK continues to stand with Ukraine as they repel Russian attacks and rebuild their country.” “Putin has used energy as a weapon of war: the action today to support nuclear fuel deliveries will help Ukraine end their reliance on Russian supplies and bolster their energy security,” he added.
The UK’s declaration follows a G7 energy ministers’ summit in Japan earlier this year, where the UK, US, Canada, Japan, and France signed an agreement to form a new nuclear fuel alliance in an effort to boost their respective countries’ nuclear energy industries and drive Russia out of the market.
Through the Ukraine Energy Support Fund, which attempts to fix and maintain infrastructure damage brought on by Russia, other European nations have also provided financial assistance to Ukraine’s energy sector.
As part of the government’s Homes for Ukraine programme, Shapps welcomed a Ukrainian family into his home last year.
Shapps visited a kindergarten in Ukraine that had been impacted by Russian shelling and had once been attended by Nikita, the little son of the family who lived with him.
