Ukraine and Germany are launching the Renewables for a Resilient Ukraine (R2U) project for Ukrainian communities worth approximately EUR 2 million, the Ministry of Energy announced on its Telegram channel on Tuesday.

Under the 18-month project, up to 20 communities will be selected, where an energy audit of critical infrastructure buildings will be performed for further provision with renewable energy sources, according to the report.

The Ministry of Energy said it is the first stage in implementing the agreements signed earlier in Kyiv by Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Haluschenko and German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck to deepen the German-Ukrainian energy partnership with a focus on Ukraine's green energy recovery.

Deputy Minister of Energy of Ukraine Yaroslav Demchenkov, representatives of the R2U project, GIZ Ukraine and other involved organizations discussed the project launch details during the online presentation, the ministry said.

According to Demchenkov cited in the press release, when implementing projects to restore Ukrainian communities with the help of renewable energy, the focus will be on the rural, coal-mining regions and the regions most affected by the war.

He added that the experience gained will be used to further scale up, replicate and create similar projects.

The ministry recalled that with the support of the European Commission, in particular, European Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson, Ukraine, as part of the first stage of the project to equip critical infrastructure buildings with solar panels, including Ukrainian hospitals, will receive 5,700 such panels from the Italian company Enel, 350 each with a total capacity of almost 2 MW.