The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted as a basis and as a whole the draft law on ratification of the Financial Agreement " Program for the Reconstruction of Ukraine" between Ukraine and the European Investment Bank. The relevant agreement to attract EUR 340 million was signed on December 9, 2020. This was announced by the Minister of Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine Oleksiy Chernyshov.

"The program is aimed at restoring the infrastructure of the regions in the east of the country affected by Russia's armed aggression against Ukraine, as well as those areas where the load on infrastructure has increased due to population growth as a result of a flow of internally displaced persons. The sum worth EUR 340 million will be allotted for the construction, modernization of health care, education, culture, sports, community centers, administrative service centers, etc. This is, of course, an extremely important direction for the state, and I express deep gratitude to our European partners and the Parliament for their support," said Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov.

This Program is a continuation of the Emergency Loan Program for the Reconstruction of Ukraine, which was signed in 2014 to raise EUR 200 million and was the first pilot loan combination program for Ukraine and a grant for local executive and local governments.

Currently, 236 projects have been approved for implementation under the current program (territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhia, Kyiv, Odesa, Poltava, Kharkiv and Kherson regions controlled by the Government of Ukraine). To date, 64 projects have been fully completed, in particular in: Donetsk region - 25; Dnipropetrovsk - 1; Luhansk - 12; Zaporizhia - 13; Odessa - 1; Kharkiv - 12. The implementation of the other 170 is still ongoing. All projects will be completed during 2021-2022.

Earlier, Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov noted that the Ministry for Communities and Territories Development had signed new agreements with the European Investment Bank and the E5P Multilateral Donor Fund for further implementation of the Ukraine - Public Buildings Energy Efficiency project.