Nezhukhiv gas distribution station in the Stryisky district of the Lviv regionLONDON, Feb 1The UK government will allocate 88 million pounds to Ukraine to support «energy independence,» the press service of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said. -Downing Street Service. It is noted that the new fund, together with another British fund, the Good Governance Fund, will help reduce Ukraine's dependence on Russian energy supplies. The Good Governance Fund was founded in 2015 to support economic and institutional reforms in Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans. Johnson and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss were expected to visit Ukraine on Tuesday, but Truss said she had contracted the coronavirus and going into self-isolation. Whether Johnson’s visit will be canceled is still unknown. Earlier, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said that Ukraine intends to disconnect from the energy systems of the Russian Federation and Belarus by 2023 and join the electricity supply system (ENTSO-E) from the EU. Russia has repeatedly rejected the accusations of the West and Ukraine in «aggressive actions», stating that it does not threaten anyone and is not going to attack anyone, and statements about «Russian aggression» are used as an excuse to place more NATO military equipment near Russian borders. The Russian Foreign Ministry noted earlier that Western statements about «Russian aggression» and the possibility of helping Kiev defend itself against it are both ridiculous and dangerous. The authorities of the Russian Federation have repeatedly said that Russia, in particular, fulfills all obligations for gas transit through the territory of Ukraine and, as a gas seller, «is interested in the operation of Ukrainian transit further as one of the ways to deliver gas to Europe.»
British Foreign Minister contracted coronavirus on the eve of her visit to Ukraine
