Nato to boost Ukraine aid as US provides $53 million

Nato allies on Tuesday said they would help Ukraine repair energy infrastructure heavily damaged by Moscow’s shelling, in what the alliance’s head said was Russia using the cold weather as “a weapon of war”.

The United States announced it would provide $53 million to buy power grid equipment.

“This equipment will be rapidly delivered to Ukraine on an emergency basis to help Ukrainians persevere through the winter,” a State Department statement said, adding that the package would include distribution transformers, circuit breakers and surge arresters among other equipment. Nato foreign ministers meeting in the Romanian capital Bucharest also confirmed a 2008 Nato summit decision that Ukraine would eventually become a member of the alliance.