Good afternoon, dear colleagues, fellow Ukrainians.

This week the government team and I had an important visit to Berlin and meetings with the leadership of the Federal Republic of Germany.

We discussed arms, financial assistance, German business investment, recovery, European integration, sanctions and the confiscation of russian assets.

Germany is one of the leading supporters of Ukraine in all areas.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz has announced a EUR 1.4 billion winter aid package for Ukraine.

Some 30 German companies are currently considering investing in our economy, and some are already implementing new projects. The German defence concern Rheinmetall and the Ukrainian Defence Industry have set up a joint venture to repair and manufacture military equipment in Ukraine.

Germany will also contribute an additional EUR 54 million to Ukraine Energy Support Fund and provide some 30 repair vehicles for Ukraine’s regional energy companies. The total announced German support for Ukraine’s energy sector this winter could amount to around EUR 200 million.

We are preparing new projects and expanding our cooperation. We are grateful to our German partners for their consistent support.

***

We are finishing the second harvest during the war. More than 70 million tonnes of grain, pulses and industrial crops have been harvested so far.

The Ministry of Agrarian Policy estimates that this year’s total harvest will amount to about 79 million tonnes of grains and oilseeds, which is almost 10% more than last year.

The Government has been helping Ukrainian farmers and will continue to do so. Farmers are the main recipients under the Government’s concessional lending programmes, as they are now the backbone of our economy and our exports.

In September, we exported 3.6 million tonnes of agricultural products. Nearly 2.3 million tonnes were exported through Danube ports. During the operation of the temporary sea corridor, we exported almost 700,000 tonnes of grain. We are continuing its work. We continue to protect and expand the Danube Cluster.

***

Economic recovery gives us the opportunity to strengthen our defence and finance budget expenditures.

This also applies to the social sphere, healthcare, education, and assistance to the regions.

Of course, it would have been very difficult without the help of our international partners. That is why we are extremely grateful for their solidarity and continue to launch new projects.

Today, we are adopting a decision that will allow us to attract USD 1.2 billion from the World Bank Group (IBRD) to support the social sector. These are funds under the guarantees of the Government of Japan, which we will use for social protection of Ukrainian families and children, social protection of people with disabilities and other important social programmes.

I thank our partners once again for their support.

For our part, the Government continues to work on improving the efficiency of social assistance to the population. Our aim is to help those who need it most. We are forming a new social policy based on the principles of digitalisation, targeting, universality, fairness and accessibility.

We have launched and are implementing the Unified Social Information System. This is necessary to ensure that all services and assistance are provided to citizens without queues, without excessive paperwork and without corruption.

Today, we are approving a resolution that will allow us to expand this Unified Social Information System by including a number of registers and databases.

In addition, the procedure for exchanging information with other information systems will be defined. All this will allow the Government to introduce new social services online and improve the existing social security system.

We are also adopting another document aimed at supporting the regions.

This year we have allocated more than UAH 23 billion to the regions most affected by russian aggression. These are funds for the exercise of local government powers. Since the beginning of the year, we have already paid out UAH 14.7 billion to the regions under this programme. Today we are allocating a further UAH 1 billion 153 million to the budget of Luhansk region and the budgets of 119 territorial communities.

Our position remains unchanged. We are supporting the communities and working as a united team to win.

Thank you for your attention.

Glory to Ukraine!