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The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has agreed to lend €200 million to Ukrainian state gas company Naftogaz to build up gas reserves ahead of the winter heating season.
The loan is the second part of a €500 million package, including €300 million lent last year to help prepare the company to face the first winter under siege after the full-scale Russian invasion, the EBRD said on its website.
The two-part package includes €54 million from the government of Norway, bringing the Norwegian contribution to EBRD aid to Ukraine's energy sector to €300 million over the past two years, said Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs Espen Barth Eide.
Last week, the EBRD announced its board of directors called for a paid-in capital increase of €4 billion that would let the bank, already the largest lender to Ukraine, double its investment in the country to €3 billion a year from €1.5 billion a year.
The capital increase, which would be the third in the lender's history, would take effect at the end of 2024, with the first payments in early 2025. The board recommendation comes just after the EBRD reached its target in October of deploying €3 billion in financing for Ukraine in the 2022-23 period.
