A Ukrainian deputy prime minister has said that Ukraine needs urgently to solve the current fuel crisis, and that, owing to their location, the Polish ports of Gdansk and Swinoujsce could help Ukraine import hydrocarbons.
Yulia Svyrydenko, the Ukrainian deputy prime minister and economy minister, made the statement during a conference accompanying the Polish-Ukrainian Energy Forum in Warsaw on Monday.
Svyrydenko said that, over recent weeks, Russia had been destroying Ukrainian fuel infrastructure, with the destroyed Kremenchuk oil refinery, a supplier of 50 percent of Ukraine’s diesel oil and 100 percent of petrol, being the best example of this destruction.
According to the Ukrainian deputy prime minister, the ports in Gdansk and Swinoujscie in Poland, as well as ports in Romania and Bulgaria, are the closest harbours through which Ukraine could transport hydrocarbons.
Jacek Sasin, a Polish deputy prime minister and state assets minister, told reporters that Polish-Ukrainian talks in Warsaw were designed to find out “how to make fuel deliveries to Ukraine more efficient.”
Sasin said that Poland “is a country which offered assistance to Ukraine without hesitation,” and that it had already become a supply hub for Ukraine.
He also stated that hydrocarbons were badly needed by Ukraine to function and conduct an effective defence against the Russian invader