Distinguished colleagues, fellow Ukrainians.

Yesterday, the Verkhovna Rada voted in support of the draft State Budget for 2024 in the first reading. We are grateful to the parliamentarians for their constructive stance and hope that the same approach will be maintained for the second reading.

It is important to continue working as a united team. Unity is our strength and resilience.

The draft budget for the next year submitted by the Government stipulates that we will allocate all possible resources to support the Security and Defense Forces of Ukraine. Just as we did last year, just as we are doing now.

For 9 months of 2023, UAH 2 trillion 119 billion has already been directed from the general fund of the state budget. Of these funds, UAH 682 billion was spent on military salaries. UAH 349 billion was transferred to support the Armed Forces of Ukraine, including the purchase of military equipment, weapons, ammunition, defence products, and personal protective equipment. That is, this year we have already directed more than UAH 1 trillion on our defence. In fact, half of all the money we spend goes to the defense and security of our country.

Social programmes fall second among the expenditures. UAH 386 billion was allocated from the budget for 9 months. Another UAH 102 billion was allocated for healthcare. UAH 112 billion was allotted for transfers to local budgets, i.e. to support Ukrainian regions.

Full and timely financing of social payments, salaries of teachers and doctors will not have been possible without the support of our international partners.

Since the beginning of the year, Ukraine has attracted almost USD 34 billion in external financing from its allies. Another almost USD 12 billion was received from the sale of military bonds.

The European Union has provided the maximum support to Ukraine this year - USD 14.6 billion. This week, the European Parliament has supported the European Commission's initiative to create a EUR 50 billion fund to help Ukraine. This is the Ukraine Facility program, which is designed for 4 years. We expect that next year we will manage to receive EUR 18 billion under this program.

MEPs also support Ukraine's initiative to channel russian funds frozen in the West to rebuild our country. We are constantly working to convince our allies that this should be done as soon as possible. We have the support of many countries and politicians in the EU, the US and the UK. We are doing everything possible for this, because the confiscated russian assets should become the primary resource for recovery next year.

Our allies also support Ukrainian business and our economy. Under various programs, international partners have provided more than EUR 4 billion in support to Ukrainian entrepreneurs.

The EBRD, the EIB, the International Finance Corporation, the German Government's state bank, and the United States Agency for International Development have provided the largest amount of funds to Ukrainian businesses. We thank them for this support.

Regarding our cooperation with European partners. This week, we held a joint meeting of the governments of Ukraine and Romania. We had extremely productive talks with Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu.

One of the major agreements was the decision to start working on the creation of joint checkpoints. This will significantly speed up border crossing, reduce the risk of abuse, and make life easier for Ukrainian businesses and citizens. This is one of the priorities of our flagship project the European Border. We hope that similar joint checkpoints will be established with Poland in the near future.

And finally. The heating season has triggered, and more and more cities are gradually being connected to the heating system. First of all, local authorities should switch on heating in schools, hospitals, kindergartens and other social infrastructure facilities.

There is no deficit in the energy system now. There are no blackouts or schedules in place. But we understand that the enemy can accumulate missiles for massive strikes, and therefore we continue to prepare.

Thousands of invincibility points will be operating across the country in winter. Today, Diia has launched a service that allows you to easily find the nearest point, see its schedule and amenities, and plan a route.

All these will be on an offline map, which will give people additional confidence that in winter they will always have access to heat, water, electricity and the Internet.

The tariffs for the heating season remain unchanged. Subsidies are extended automatically. Everyone who received a subsidy in September does not need to apply for a new heating season. The Pension Fund will recalculate everything. We will support every family that now needs help to pay for housing and communal services.

We are working together and united for our victory over the enemy, for Ukraine's resilience and recovery.

Thank you for your attention.

Glory to Ukraine.