German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock announced on Thursday 3 November that the G7, which is meeting on 3 and 4 November in Münster (Germany), would provide winter aid to support Ukraine.
“Following the Russian war of aggression, we will now, as G7 partners, put in place winter aid. We will not allow the brutality of this war to lead to the deaths of large numbers of people, the elderly, children, young people and families over the coming winter months because of the Russian President’s chosen method of starving people and leaving them to freeze to death”, she warned ahead of the G7 meeting.
“What Putin wants to do is to put the country in the dark in winter. It is a war crime”, said the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell.
The German minister said the G7 was meeting to “coordinate (its) actions on winter support for Ukraine, because electricity grids are bombed, water stations are bombed, children hide under their school tables when they hear the alarms, and elderly people are afraid that they will not be able to heat their already damaged homes during the winter”. According to her, many countries have already declared that they will join in this winter aid. “It also means that we will not accept that peace and international law are violated during the winter”, Baerbock warned.
The politician said that Germany had already taken humanitarian aid measures supporting the stabilisation of the power grid with more than 100 generators. Berlin will also provide heaters, pumps, accommodation and sanitation, containers, beds, blankets and tents.
During their meeting, the Ministers held a videoconference with their Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant with Léa Marchal)