Ukrainian PM discusses attacks on energy in US talks

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(Reuters) -Ukraine’s prime minister said on Tuesday she was focusing on Russian attacks on her country’s energy grid in talks in Washington ahead of a visit later this week by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

“At every meeting in Washington we raise the topic of defending Ukrainian energy and supporting our resilience over the winter and ways to defend it,” Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

She described the priorities of her visit as “energy, sanctions and the development of cooperation with the USA in new ways that can strengthen both our countries”.

Zelenskiy meets U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday to discuss Ukraine’s air defence and long-range strike capabilities. The leaders spoke twice last weekend amid intensifying discussions about the potential provision of long-range Tomahawk missiles to Kyiv.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent “reaffirmed the United States’ unwavering support for Ukrainian sovereignty and emphasized the United States’ dedication to securing a lasting, durable peace” during talks with Svyrydenko, according to a U.S. Treasury statement.

He also thanked Svyrydenko for supporting the U.S.-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund, which the Ukrainian prime minister was instrumental in helping set up earlier this year.

Ukraine and the U.S. in September held the first board meeting of the joint investment fund, set up as part of a deal to give Washington preferential access to Ukrainian minerals in exchange for investment.

Svyrydenko is accompanied by the Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, Rustem Umerov, and a team of officials from the government, central bank and other bodies.

(Reporting by Ron Popeski and Jasper Ward; Editing by Stephen Coates)