Good afternoon, dear colleagues, dear Ukrainians.

We are starting the last regular meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine this year.

We are holding it in Kyiv. In the free capital of the unbreakable country. We thank the Armed Forces of Ukraine for making this possible.

February 24, 2022 will forever go down in history as a turning point for Ukraine and the world.

This day was the beginning of the end of the russian under-empire.

russia had strategically lost the moment it had decided that it could conquer Ukrainians and destroy our statehood. Instead, the free people of a free country demonstrated to the whole world what it means to be ready to fight an enemy that everyone called much stronger than you.

Along with gratitude to our military, we thank power engineers, rescuers, employees of the utilities sector, doctors and all brave Ukrainians who continue to fight, work and help the Armed Forces and their country here and now.

The year of 2022 will go down in history as a symbol of the struggle and resilience of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people.

We believe that 2023 will go down in the history of Ukraine as a year of great victory and peace.

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Therefore, today's opening speech will be devoted to the main achievements, thanks to which we withstood and laid the foundation of our victory.

Next year, as well as this year, building a strong army will be the main task of the Government. The resources we spent in 2022 and budgeted for 2023 clearly demonstrate this.

During the full-scale war, the Government has allocated more than UAH 1.2 trillion for the security and defense sector. We have significantly increased payments to all military personnel. More than UAH 250 billion were allocated for the purchase and modernization of weapons and equipment that effectively destroys the occupiers.

We have created new mechanisms of security support for Ukraine, among which the key place was occupied by the Ramstein format that united 50 countries.

A number of long-term contracts for the production of weapons for Ukraine have been concluded, to be financed by the governments of the United States, Germany, Denmark, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Norway and other our partner countries over the next 2-3 years. Ukraine continues to actively produce its own weapons.

We have applied for NATO membership. We are introducing the best standards of the Alliance in logistics, planning and accountability.

Ukrainian army, without exaggeration, is now one of the strongest in Europe and the world. And our army will bring us victory. And we will work to ensure that it is provided in the best possible way.

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The milestone in our history was obtaining the EU candidate status in June this year.

In record time for all countries, we have completed the questionnaire for obtaining this status. We have already managed to implement the Association Agreement with the EU by more than 70%. Next year we expect to start negotiations on accession to the European Union.

Integration into the EU is not about some vast future that will give results someday. Integration into the EU is the transformation of our country right now. It means business opportunities, state stability, strengthening of our institutions, fair rules, opportunities and freedoms for all Ukrainians.

This year, amid the war, we have received five so-called "visa-free regimes" with the EU. What was planned to be done for years, we have done in 10 months.

Energy visa-free regime - in March, when we joined the European energy grid.

Transport visa-free regime - in June, thanks to which Ukrainian business no longer needs permits for road freight transportation.

Economic visa-free regime abolished for a year all duties and quotas on Ukrainian goods exported to the EU.

Customs visa-free regime started to function in October and allows us to integrate our customs into the European one.

Digital visa-free regime, thanks to which Ukraine is now a member of the Digital Europe Programme.

This is only the tip of the whole work. Hundreds of regulations have already been adopted to make our legislation fully compliant with the European one. Hundreds more are being prepared for adoption next year. Our strategic goal is to meet the accession criteria by the end of 2024.

Not only Europe, but the entire civilized world stands side by side with us in the war of liberation. Thanks to the leadership of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, we managed to create a powerful pro-Ukrainian coalition. We are receiving more and more modern weapons, financial and political support. All our allies say in unison: we will support Ukraine as long as it is necessary.

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During this year, we have repeatedly said that battles are won by armies, and wars are won by economies.

We managed to maintain stability in financial, banking and economic spheres. We managed to finance all key budget expenditures.

We did not delay pensions, salaries to doctors or teachers. Every week we held and are holding constant negotiations to mobilize more support for Ukraine. During these 10 months we have already attracted more than USD 31 billion from our partners.

Next year, we are equally clear on how we will finance the budget and recovery and what we need for that.

Another step in support of sound public finances was the successful debt policy. The negotiations conducted by the Government and the Ministry of Finance resulted in the postponement of all external debt payments for 2 years. Almost UAH 200 billion was raised from the sale of military bonds.

International support has become extremely important. At the same time, it should be understood that 2/3 of all the funds that we received in the budget were our internal resources. Payment of taxes, duties by each of us, purchase of bonds.

That is why from the first days of the war we did everything to support the private sector. We introduced tax, regulatory and credit privileges. We launched new business support programs, helped with relocation, assisted with logistics.

Business, in turn, has demonstrated incredible adaptability, patriotism and social responsibility.

Thousands of enterprises have been working for the army and performing the most crucial tasks for the country in various spheres. If we talk about the figures, 28,000 Ukrainian enterprises are involved in the implementation of mobilization tasks.

Only in the framework of the preferential loan program "5-7-9" UAH 70 billion was issued to support businesses. More than UAH 45 billion was issued under the program of portfolio guarantees.

Since the beginning of the war, tax benefits and incentives have been introduced, such as a 2% single tax rate. The Government has abolished almost all business inspections. A declarative principle was introduced for the vast majority of permits and licenses.

More than 700 enterprises were relocated, thus saving thousands of jobs.

A unique grant program for business eRobota was launched. And over these months it has shown real success. More than UAH 2 billion in grants, thousands of new businesses.

Immediately after the beginning of the full-scale war, we started negotiations with our partners in the EU on the abolition of all import duties and quotas on Ukrainian goods. This is what we call "economic visa-free regime". Since June, it has been operational. And it has saved Ukrainian entrepreneurs tens of millions of dollars. Moreover, the UK, Canada and Australia have also abolished import duties. Now we are working to make these trade preferences not temporary but permanent.

We will continue to support the creation of industrial parks, of which there are already 59. We will continue Diia.City, where more than 400 residents have been added over the past 10 months.

We will continue to support the agricultural sector, which has also shown incredible resilience. We have provided UAH 80 billion to 38,000 of our farmers during these months of war. We helped to carry out the most difficult sowing campaign in the history of Ukraine on time. Thanks to this, we have already harvested more than 60 million tonnes of crops. And Ukraine has definitely satisfied its demands with food for the next year.

Thanks to the Grain Initiative, 15 million tonnes of produce were exported, including more than 10 million tonnes through the Danube ports of Ukraine.

New logistic routes concern not only waterways, but also railways and motor transport. Several key border crossing points with Poland were significantly expanded and a new one was opened on the border with Romania.

In spring, we faced a fuel crisis, but thanks to our synergy with business, we also overcame this extraordinary challenge. Fuel imports have increased 10 times compared to March, and now we bring it from all over the world.

Now the whole country is facing consequences of the energy crisis caused by russian terror against our energy infrastructure. And we will overcome this challenge as well.

Our energy system has withstood ten major attacks and dozens of smaller ones. And despite that, it remains controllable.

We expect at least USD 1.5 billion in support for the energy sector from our partners. Hundreds of cargoes of equipment from all over the world have arrived or are on their way to Ukraine right now. Thanks to the professionalism of Ukrainian power engineers and our preparations, we have withstood what no other power system in Europe could have.

At the beginning of the heating season, more than 14.5 billion cubic meters of gas were accumulated in Ukrainian gas storage facilities, and 1.5 million tonnes of coal were in stock. We also have resources for additional purchases.

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In the conditions of war and economic crisis, state social support allowed millions of Ukrainians to survive. In the first weeks after the full-scale invasion the Government paid more than UAH 30 billion within the eSupport project. Then, hundreds of thousands of citizens who lost their jobs received UAH 6,500 each.

Almost 11 million pensioners have been receiving their payments on time all this time. Moreover, this year we have indexed pensions, increasing them by 16%. We will also index pensions in 2023.

Targeting and helping those who need it most is the principle that allowed us to effectively support our citizens. The Government has paid UAH 53 billion in assistance to internally displaced persons. About 2 million people receive monthly payments of UAH 2,000 to 3,000. In addition, we have reached an agreement that similar programs could be launched by our partners from international organizations, primarily the UN and the Red Cross.

We are grateful to them for these projects, as well as for the important assistance to the medical and educational sectors, which were significantly affected by the war.

We have found resources to ensure that the salary of doctors in Ukraine is not less than UAH 20,000, and the salary of nurses is not less than UAH 13,500. We prolong and expand the Affordable Medicines program.

In the educational sphere we are also trying to provide additional support. More than 20,000 students have already been transferred to the state-funded form of education. These are the military and children of the military, students from the frontline communities. Now in Ukraine, almost 8,500 schools operate in a mixed mode. Another 4,600 schools teach children online. The admission campaign was also successful – more than 600,000 applicants were enrolled in vocational and higher education institutions.

The digitalization reform also contributed to additional resilience of our state. Moreover, this reform covers ever new areas.

During the months of war, we added three documents and 16 services to the Diia app, plus 25 more services are now available on the Diia portal.

18.5 million Ukrainians already use Diia. Paying taxes, getting a mortgage, unemployment benefits or IDP status – all this can now be done quickly and easily. Digitalization is penetrating deeper into all areas and is becoming one of the foundations for building a new economy.

Despite hundreds of challenges, we have made a strategic decision not to postpone preparation of a major Recovery Plan for Ukraine. Back in summer, we held the first conference on recovery in Lugano. We approved the relevant principles guiding this reconstruction.

In Washington, Berlin, London, Warsaw and Brussels, the leaders of the free world reaffirm their intentions to participate in a large-scale project of rebuilding our country, which can become a new unifying idea for Europe and a significant booster for the entire European economy. In October, at the second conference on recovery in Berlin, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced the Marshall Plan of the XXI century to be developed for Ukraine.

We are already preparing a framework for this. Together with the World Bank and the European Commission, our Government has made the first verified estimate of funds needed for the reconstruction. As of June, it was USD 350 billion, and by the end of the year we will reach the amount of more than USD 700 billion.

The Government has launched a number of registers to collect data on damages. A process of creating an international Register of Damages has been launched. Moreover, we have defined a concept of a mechanism for compensating the losses caused by russian aggression to Ukraine, which will be based on a multilateral international agreement.

We will make russia pay. We will do everything to confiscate hundreds of billions of dollars frozen in the West and direct them to the restoration of our state.

It is important to understand that when we talk about restoration, it does not mean only the reconstruction of damaged roads, bridges, schools or hospitals. Restoration of Ukraine is a radical transformation into a European country with new rules and approaches, as well as a new quality of life for people. We want those who left to return. We want Ukrainians to see the prospect of how our country will flourish. And I have no doubts about that.

We remember February this year, when we were told that Kyiv would fall in a week. Allegedly, the dollar would be at 100. Inflation would be 100%. They said that half of Ukrainians would leave the country and never return. That the energy system would lose control. That the state would not be able to pay neither pensions nor salaries.

All these are forecasts of long gone days, but it is important for us to remember what an incredible way we have been through.

Today, I once again bow my head as a sign of respect and gratitude to all the soldiers who keep the independence of our country on their shoulders. Eternal glory and memory to every hero who died in this war.

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Dear colleagues, dear Ukrainians.

The new year of 2023 is coming soon.

Everyone is looking into this near future with expectations and great hope.

With faith in the victory of light over darkness! With faith that soon the whole big family of Ukrainians will be together, will be at home, will be safe. That our children will laugh at the top of their lungs and will not be afraid of loud noises, and the skies will be peaceful, quiet, and clear.

The world will always remember 2022 as the year of unbreakable and brave Ukrainians. The year of heroes of the Armed Forces of Ukraine!

And we will do everything to ensure that 2023 is remembered as the year of Victory of an independent, free, unbreakable Ukraine.

I wish all Ukrainians in the new year strength and inspiration to do good deeds in the name of our country.

We believe in the Armed Forces! Glory to Ukraine!