Ukraine is set to continue to import record amounts of power to make up for a shortfall caused by Russia's targeting of energy infrastructure, which has decimated output.
Ukraine's power grid operator Ukrenerho said on June 14 that it would import 31,904 megawatt hours (MWh) of power, breaking the previous record of 29,796 MWh set earlier this week.
The announcement comes a day after the Ukrainian government said that Group of Seven (G7) member states had agreed to provide more than $1 billion to support Ukraine’s energy sector.
Russia has ramped up its missile and drone attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure since March, causing frequent blackouts in many regions. Kyiv has been forced to import electricity from the European Union to keep the lights on.
Ukraine and Russia exchanged drone attacks overnight into June 14 as the Group of Seven (G7) agreed on a $50 billion loan to Ukraine using frozen Russian assets as collateral.
The Ukrainian armed forces said air defenses had struck down all 17 Shahed-type drones launched by Russia over seven regions.
Russia also fired 17 cruise and ballistic missiles, half of which were intercepted, according to the Ukrainian Air Force.
In Donetsk, nine people were wounded as a result of Russian shelling, according to local administration head Vadym Filashkin. Ukraine’s emergency services said homes and vehicles had caught fire in the Kharkiv Oblast.
In Sumy, a bus carrying more than 20 people was targeted by a Russian drone, local authorities said, injuring at least three women.
Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry said its armed forces had shot down 87 Ukrainian drones across five regions as well as the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula.
The debris disrupted power supply in the Rostov region and damaged fuel tanks at an oil depot in Voronezh, according to local authorities.
Hours earlier, the G7 leaders in Italy agreed to provide a $50 billion loan to Ukraine. The agreement will leverage interest and income from more than $260 billion in frozen Russian assets, largely held in Europe, to secure a $50 billion loan from the U.S. and additional loans from other partners.
Speaking to reporters via teleconference, a senior U.S. administration official said the agreement “is a signal from the leading democracies of the world that we're not going to fatigue in defending Ukraine's freedom and that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is not going to outlast us.”
Separately, U.S. President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy signed a 10-year security agreement on the sidelines of the G7 summit, hailing it as a milestone in relations between their countries.
Biden said the goal "is to strengthen Ukraine's defense and deterrence capabilities.”
He said the United States has received commitments from five countries that he did not name to provide Patriot missile and other air defense systems to Ukraine.
Zelenskiy called the security agreement a "bridge to Ukraine's accession to NATO" and said it was important for all Ukrainians and Europeans to know that there will be no security deficit in Europe to tempt aggressors to wage war and make the future uncertain.
