Ukraine meeting energy needs despite Russian air attacks - PM

Ukraine is managing to generate as much power as it needs, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Friday, despite Russian air strikes on its energy network.

Shmyhal told a news conference just over a year after Russia's invasion that no immediate changes were planned in the government and that reforms would continue.

He also said that Ukraine, which wants to join the NATO military alliance, hoped for "concrete decisions" from its NATO allies.

Russia has carried out waves of air strikes on energy facilities that at times have at time left millions of people without power, but Ukraine has quickly carried out repairs.

"Ukraine is for now provided with (power) generating and network capacities," Shmyhal said. "The next step is to secure the network infrastructure for the next (heating) season."

He said the government would continue reforms to meet its wartime challenges, adding that personnel changes would happen "but we did not discuss them for the near future."

Kyiv has welcomed the supply of weapons from countries in NATO but also hopes that the alliance will go further than holding out the prospect of Ukraine potentially being able to join the alliance one day in the future.

"Open doors are not enough for us. We are waiting for concrete decisions form our partners," Shmyhal said."