Building a new economy, continuing reforms and ensuring resilience during the war – Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal outlined the tasks facing the Government at the fourth annual press conference on 4 March.

“The first task is to provide resources for the Security and Defence Forces to ensure our resilience during the war. The second task is to build a new economy in the midst of the war, which will at the same time become the basis for the Ukrainian economic miracle. The third task is to continue reforms on the path to the EU and to continue the restoration of Ukraine,” the Head of Government said.

The Prime Minister stressed that despite the full-scale russian invasion, the Government had managed to maintain macro-financial stability in the country.

He also emphasised that Ukraine was spending its own resources on defence and security: “We can say that every hryvnia paid by Ukrainian businesses and Ukrainian citizens goes to security and defence. We need help from our partners in other areas.”

According to Denys Shmyhal, a total of USD 75 billion in foreign aid has been raised over the past two years. This year, the goal is to raise at least USD 37 billion. But of course more aid is expected. The largest donors of direct budget support are the EU, the U.S., the IMF, Japan, Canada, the UK, the World Bank, and other G7 and Nordic countries.

Denys Shmyhal also stressed the importance of starting to use the proceeds from frozen russian assets this year.

“Assistance from our partners is an extremely important tool, but we need predictability and stability regardless of time, regardless of political fluctuations, election cycles in the world. Accordingly, the confiscation of russian assets should become a reliable source of support for our state and funding for our recovery,” the Prime Minister stressed. He added that about EUR 300 billion of russian sovereign assets had been frozen in the West. These are mainly various financial instruments (bonds).

“Today, most of our partners support the idea of using russian assets for Ukraine’s reconstruction. We already understand that there is full readiness to use the proceeds of the frozen russian assets for the benefit of Ukraine. But that is only the first step. We are interested in confiscation. Because this is the punishment of the aggressor for the crimes for which it must pay,” the Head of Government stressed.

Denys Shmyhal stressed that an international working group on confiscation was being set up. Separately, Ukraine is working with the EU and Belgium, which has the largest amount of frozen russian assets, on the issue of using the proceeds from these assets and confiscation. A register of damage has also been established as part of the international compensation mechanism based on an international treaty. Work is underway to establish a compensation commission and a compensation fund.