Kyiv has received the first batch of high-capacity generators bought with money donated by Taiwan, a Ukrainian lawmaker told reporters yesterday.
“The first generators purchased with funds from Taiwan were delivered to Kyiv. They will be used in boiler houses,” Kira Rudik, leader of the Holos Party, said in a text message.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko on Monday told Ukrainian media that the first batch of two generators had already been transferred to municipal utility Kievteploenergo to use in boilers and heating stations.
Photo from the Kyiv City Council’s Facebook page
“As part of the project, about 20 generators are expected to be transferred to power-critical infrastructure facilities in the capital,” Klitschko said, expressing gratitude to “partners around the world” for supporting his city and Ukraine as a whole.
The generators are being purchased with a US$1 million donation Taiwan made to Kyiv last month to help overcome widespread power outages blamed on Russian airstrikes on critical infrastructure.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said that the donation was confirmed on Dec. 7 with the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), Klitschko and Grygorii Malenko, executive director of Kyiv-based charitable fund Darnychany.
When the agreement was signed, the ministry said that the funds would be allocated to procure electricity generation equipment, including diesel and gasoline generators, to “help the more than 3 million Kyiv residents suffering from electricity shortages survive the severe winter.”
Aside from Kyiv, Ou said that the government was planning another US$2 million donation to help other frontline cities in Ukraine purchase badly needed high-capacity generators to help them survive the winter.
The ministry would make public more details of such upcoming donations soon, she said.
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