Russia is stoking a ‘humanitarian crisis’ with attacks on Ukrainian natural gas infrastructure, G7 ministers told

Global Affairs Minister Anita Anand said Ottawa would accelerate payment of the final $10 million of $70-million in aid the federal government earlier promised to shore up the Ukrainian natural-gas system. Photo by Sean Kilpatrick /The Canadian Press

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Russian attacks on Ukraine’s natural-gas system are a deliberate bid to create a “humanitarian crisis,” Ukraine’s energy minister charged Friday as Canada pledged speeded-up support for the nation’s battered heating and lighting grid.

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Moscow has consistently attacked civilian energy infrastructure since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago, noted Svitlana Grynchuk, the energy minister. But earlier this year it started hitting natural-gas production and other parts of the gas system, crucial to civilian homes.

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“It’s not about military targets,” Grynchuk said at a news conference with Canadian cabinet ministers during a G7 ministerial conference in Toronto. “They attack directly the civilian infrastructure and they know very well what they want. They want to put Ukraine in the dark, they want to freeze Ukrainians and they want to create a humanitarian crisis.”

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Global Affairs Minister Anita Anand said Ottawa would accelerate payment of the final $10 million of $70-million in aid the federal government earlier promised to shore up the Ukrainian natural-gas system. About $50 million already handed over is paying for new gas compressors in Kharkiv, the major eastern Ukrainian city that is close to the war’s front lines. Compressors help to maintain pressure in gas pipelines and speed its flow.

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Just between March and September, Russia has carried out 3,000 strikes against Ukraine’s critical infrastructure, disabling 60 per cent of its domestic gas production and 70 per cent of the gas supply relied on by homes, said Anand.

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“Now, winter again approaches and once again Russia is weaponizing the cold, unleashing a vicious and unjustifiable campaign,” she said. “No heat, no water, no light, only cold air slicing through walls, freezing homes, hearts and hope.”

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“We will not stand by and allow Putin to have Ukrainians freeze in the dark this winter.”

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Grynchuk said other countries at the G7 energy and environment ministers’ meeting have also offered aid to shore up the Ukrainian battered energy system. Despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s vacillating stance on the conflict, Chris Wright, his energy secretary, is a strong “friend of Ukrainian energy,” she said.

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In fact, Wright raised the issue himself at a later news conference, referring to “withering, destructive attacks” on the Ukrainian grid.

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“All the G7 nations talked about how we can deliver emergency replacement parts, emergency energy … to get them through the winter.”

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Wright also suggested that Europe could wean itself off oil from Russia, starving Moscow of funds to prosecute the war, if it looked to the U.S. and other suppliers of oil and gas instead.