Russia is behind hacker attacks on Poland’s tax system

Russia is behind hacker attacks on Poland’s tax system

The US Department of Energy is discussing with Kyiv the creation of a new decentralized energy infrastructure in Ukraine, which, in particular, will involve a partial transition to clean energy.

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Deputy Secretary of Energy David Turk said this on Tuesday, February 28, at a briefing in the press service of the US State Department for foreign journalists. According to him, Ukraine could take advantage of the current crisis to reform its energy infrastructure.

“We also want to support Ukraine in the long term, including its energy systems and electricity supply. There are ways to decentralize electricity, including using renewable resources, that have some energy security and also have sustainability benefits. We had really constructive conversations with our Ukrainian counterparts about long-term plans, as well as their own aspirations to transition to clean energy in their country, using the resources they have,” said the American government official.

Turk called the Russian shelling of the energy infrastructure in Ukraine and its global consequences one of the biggest energy crises in the world for the past year.

“This unjustified and brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine not only directly affected the energy industry in terms of the bombing of the electrical infrastructure in Ukraine, but also had a huge impact on the energy industry, energy security, energy availability not only in Europe,” said David Turk. He emphasized that this energy crisis has led to higher prices all over the world. “We felt it in the USA, other countries felt it too.”

The US Department of Energy, in cooperation with external partners, has already sent three large batches of energy equipment to Ukraine, noted the deputy minister. “We are just sending the third batch of electrical equipment to help Ukrainians build and restore their electrical infrastructure.”

Turk called the situation at nuclear power plants in Ukraine very dangerous, and the actions of the Russians around the Zaporizhzhya NPP – “irresponsible behavior of Russia.”

“We are cooperating with our colleagues from the IAEA, in particular with Secretary General Grossi and others. He tried to play a constructive role, to propose some rules so that there would be some certainty, to make sure that even in a war zone there would be no unintentional damage to the power plant.”

However, according to him, it is still not possible to reach a constructive agreement with the Russians. “We are not there yet. The situation is dangerous. We are trying to work with the IAEA and others, and of course the Ukrainian government, to try to solve some of these problems in the future.”

Commenting on the energy situation in Europe, David Turk assured that the Western countries will not use Russian gas next winter. And he admitted that preparing, in particular, Europe for winter will be difficult.

“Russian gas will not come to us to fill the storages, as it was last winter. We will need to do everything we can to keep these energy resources flowing by creating an energy reserve. … This will be a real challenge, and we will need to work on it,” the government official emphasized.

He noted that “not only Europe depends on Russian gas, but also countries such as Japan, South Korea and others. And we want to make sure that these countries also have stable and affordable energy supplies.”

To the question of whether China benefits from the war in Ukraine, the US Deputy Secretary of Energy answered: “no”

“If I were to analyze the situation as an energy expert, then no. China is a major importer of energy. And the prices that China has to pay for oil, gas and other imported energy resources have risen, just like in other countries of the world. Also, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and this upward price pressure are holding back the Chinese economy; it also slows down the US economy; it is holding back the Japanese economy; it is holding back economies around the world. And we all must clearly understand who caused such a slowdown for all our economies – it was Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine,” said the US Deputy Secretary of Energy.

In addition, the war in Ukraine has caused inflation in many countries around the world, Turk added: “A significant part of the inflation that all our countries are suffering from is caused by Putin’s invasion of Russia – the invasion of Ukraine and the creation of instability, in particular, in the world oil markets.”

The day before, in an interview with the Ukrainian branch of the Voice of America, US Secretary of Energy Granholm said that Ukraine after the war has a chance to become a leader in the production of clean energy: “Ukraine is in an excellent position, thanks to its resources, to be a producer of clean energy for own use as well as for export, especially now that it is connected to the European energy grid. And you can see the future for Ukraine as a leader in clean energy production.”



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