Statement by Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal at the Government session

Distinguished colleagues! Fellow Ukrainians!

We now start our regular session of the Government.

Yesterday, Ukraine received the ninth tranche from the IMF under our joint program with the Fund. The amount is USD 500 million.

Never before in the history of its independence has Ukraine undergone 8 reviews under one program.

Today, the Ukrainian Government and the Ukrainian State are a responsible partner. This is the trust that we have forged not only with the IMF, but also with the World Bank, the European Investment Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the European Commission, the G7 and our other allies around the world.

It is thanks to this that Ukraine has already attracted more than USD 135 billion of budgetary support from partners since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.

This week, we also received USD 1.7 billion from Canada, which is secured by the proceeds of frozen russian assets.

Our joint ERA initiative is working, and the russian frozen money is already contributing to Ukraine's defense and resilience.

Thanks to such tools and the trust in Ukraine by our partners, we can fully finance our army, pay salaries to doctors and teachers, pay pensions and subsidies on time, and recover our country.

In June, we paid almost UAH 68 billion in pensions and UAH 1.2 billion in housing subsidies and benefits.

We are launching new programs to help those who need it most.

We clearly understand how Ukraine will cover the budget deficit this year.

We are already preparing and negotiating the financing for 2026, a year which brings a lot of uncertainty.

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Active work with the European Union prolongs.

Yesterday, Denmark has started its six-month presidency of the EU Council. We have high expectations for these six months. We want to open all six negotiation clusters by the end of the year.

Simultaneously, we are pursuing robust internal work.

Recently, the negotiating teams have completed a screening of the compliance of Ukrainian legislation with European standards in one of the key sectors - transport. The next step is to implement hundreds of EU legal acts into the Ukrainian legal framework.

We're on with the work to ensure that Ukraine becomes an EU member as soon as possible.

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Today's agenda includes a number of important decisions in two priority areas.

The first is education.

We keep creating modern educational spaces. For this purpose, we have already distributed more than UAH 488 million of the so-called STEM subvention among hromadas. Now we are allocating another UAH 11 million for schools in Dnipro and Cherkasy regions.

We provide financial resources for the modernization of school canteens. We allocate UAH 185 million for schools in 12 regions. A total of UAH 960 million has been envisaged in the state budget for this purpose this year.

The second priority area is housing.

Today, the Government triggers an ambitious experimental project to create a municipal rental housing fund.

Communities will act as construction customers. The documentation will be developed on the basis of ready-made design solutions, which will significantly speed up and reduce the cost of the process.

In particular, veterans, relatives of fallen defenders, servicemen, IDPs, orphans, teachers, doctors, and public utilities specialists will be the first to receive municipal housing.

We determine clear criteria for both the candidates for housing and the apartments in particular. Hence, the standard is 40 m² per family of two. The apartments must be suitable for living, furnished and equipped with household appliances.

The rent shall be calculated according to a special formula, taking into account the socio-economic conditions of a particular region. The rate is much lower than the market rate and therefore affordable for families with low incomes.

People will pay about UAH 6,000 per month for renting a one-room apartment.

The project will be financed by local budgets, as well as by loans and grants from partners.

Thanks to the implementation of the pilot project, we shall achieve several goals: citizens in need will be provided with public housing, we will facilitate the integration of internally displaced persons into new communities and stimulate Ukrainians to return to their homeland.

In addition, due to the support of the World Bank as part of the HOPE project, we activate restoring of housing of Ukrainians.

We channel to the regions - the communities of Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv, Izyum, Bucha and Makariv - UAH 540 million. These resources will be invested in the repair of about 200 apartment buildings damaged by russian terrorists.

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In conclusion, I would like to sincerely thank all taxpayers for their huge contribution to Ukraine's resilience.

In June, the state budget earned over UAH 360 billion in taxes, duties and other payments.

We express our gratitude. Every hryvnia is important for victory and recovery.

Thank you for your attention!

Glory to Ukraine!