WARSAW (Reuters) -Europe’s top development banks and Ukrainian energy firm Naftogaz signed a deal on Thursday to provide hundreds of millions of euros to secure Ukraine’s natural gas supply amid the ongoing attacks on its infrastructure by Russia.
Ukrainian gas imports have risen as the war with Russia batters the country’s energy system. Norway announced earlier this year that it would provide financing for Ukrainian purchases of its natural gas.
In a statement the EIB, the EU’s lending arm, said an EU grant would provide 127 million euros ($127 million) of additional funding to Naftogaz on top of a 300 billion euro loan it outlined last month.
A further 25 million euro grant is to be provided to improve Ukraine’s drinking water and wastewater treatment systems, and another 50 million euros has been extended to support an EIB-approved social housing reconstruction loan.
Ukraine’s energy sector has come into sharp focus in recent days amid a probe into an alleged $100 million corruption scheme that has already seen moves by the government to dismiss two of the country’s cabinet ministers.
The graft scandal centers around an alleged plot to control procurement at nuclear agency Energoatom and other state enterprises. No other firms have been identified in connection with the corruption scandal.
($1 = 0.8575 euros)
(Reporting by Barbara Erling; Writing by Marc Jones: Editing by Jan Harvey)
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