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Germany is proposing to set aside an additional €100 million ($113 million) to help repair Ukraine's water, energy and transport infrastructure, as Russian attacks on the country's power and transport systems intensify ahead of winter.
The proposal is set out in a letter from Germany's Finance Ministry to the parliamentary budget committee, Reuters reported on Thursday. The money would supplement funding for Ukraine already included in Germany's 2026 budget and would cover damage caused by a Russian campaign of aerial bombardment that has intensified since the summer.
In September, the German government had already set aside €250 million to support Ukraine through the Ukraine Energy Support Fund. The new €100 million would come on top of that.
Since July, Russia has been carrying out increasingly frequent and intense attacks on critical and civilian infrastructure in big cities, transport routes, logistics centres and companies, according to the letter. With winter approaching, the letter said 80 percent of Ukraine's power generation capacity had been destroyed since Russia's invasion in 2022, with attacks in October causing blackouts in more than a third of Ukraine's regions.
The funds would be used for decentralised power generation and storage equipment, repairs to water and power infrastructure, firefighting equipment and repairs to school buildings.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz's government has been the biggest European contributor to Ukraine, providing billions in military assistance to the government in Kyiv.
Supporters of the funding say it is vital as Ukraine faces damaged infrastructure and winter pressures, while critics question the growing cost of the aid and whether more spending will bring the war closer to an end.