On April 19, a constituent meeting of the Interdepartmental Expert Group on Critical Infrastructure Protection under the chairmanship of the First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine,  Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine Stepan Kubiv took place.

The First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine stressed that currently in Ukraine, the unified state system of critical infrastructure protection has been shaped but is incomplete, and protection of strategically important state facilities is not systematic.

"We should radically change approaches to protecting objects and resources that are critical elements of the system and vital for the functioning of the state. The work of the expert group should develop effective tools to resolve the problematic issues in this area until the Verkhovna Rada adopts the relevant bill", said Stepan Kubiv.

The First Deputy Prime Minister emphasized that amid armed, economic, information aggression against Ukraine by Russia, the protection of critical infrastructure is a matter of protecting national interests.

"It is crucial to create effective mechanisms for preventing threats to strategically important infrastructural objects. This requires a number of important decisions in various spheres, efficacious coordination and interaction among a number of government authorities, institutions and organizations", stressed the First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine.

Stepan Kubiv reminded about the importance of ensuring high-quality monitoring and assessment of the state of security and protection of critical infrastructure objects, determination of the effective regime for the functioning of the state critical infrastructure protection system, as well as the necessity to develop and amend the current legislation of Ukraine, including completely new regulatory documents.

Background

The Interdepartmental Expert Group includes: the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, the Security Service of Ukraine, the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry, the Ministry of Infrastructure, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food, the Ministry for Temporary Occupied Territories and Internally Displaced Persons, the State Fiscal Service, the State Financial Monitoring Service, Antimonopoly Committee, State Emergency Situations Service, National Bank, State Agency of Water Resources, State Ecological Inspection.

In the near future representatives of the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Communal Services, the Government Office for the Coordination of European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, and the National Institute for Strategic Studies will be involved in the work of the Expert Group.