Distinguished colleagues, fellow Ukrainians!

We start a regular session of the Cabinet of Ministers.

We begin with defense - our top priority.

By redistributing state budget expenditures, we allocate today more than UAH 8 billion for the construction of fortifications.

Thus, since the beginning of 2024, we have allocated almost UAH 38 billion to strengthen the defense borders. We are not going to stop there.

Our task is to create a reliable defensive rampart to protect our soldiers and give our army a greater advantage on the battlefield.

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As we said earlier, we will allocate all additional resources to the defense capability of our country.

We continue to work to attract more resources from within and from our partners.

Last week the Government's delegation was working hard in the United States.

We had held important meetings with representatives of the U.S. administration, congressmen and senators from both parties, and heads of international financial institutions.

We have tangible results.

The House of Representatives has approved a bill to help Ukraine. Almost USD 61 billion, of which USD 49.9 billion is defense spending.

We received assurances that the draft law would quickly pass through the Senate, be signed and come into force.

The lower house of the Congress has also passed a law on the confiscation of russian sovereign assets.

The relevant powers will be given to the U.S. President. This could potentially give Ukraine up to USD 5 billion, which is currently under American jurisdiction.

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We also have some positive news from the EU.

The European Commission supported the Ukraine Plan under the Ukraine Facility programme. And we expect EUR 1.5 billion to be disbursed under the aforesaid EU programme this week.

Today the Cabinet of Ministers approves a decision to attract an additional EUR 100 million from the Council of Europe Development Bank to restore Ukrainian healthcare sector.

Another decision adds EUR 15 million from the European Investment Bank as part of the financing of the bank guarantee program. This shall improve the conditions for obtaining concessional loans for Ukrainian small and medium-sized enterprises.

Therefore, we accumulate financial resources for the defense, resilience, and recovery of Ukraine as well as the economy.

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Yet another key challenge is energy.

We have suffered heavy losses at the generation level, and now, as the temperature drops, this is affecting the power system.

For several days in a row, we have been recording a power deficit, which we are covering with the help of our European partners.

Just like at the beginning of a full-scale war, we must unite to be resilient.

I call on all Ukrainians to be frugal, especially during morning and evening peak hours. And the industry - to maximize electricity imports and use alternative power sources, if available.

Now power engineers are doing everything possible to maintain the situation and make quick repairs. Together we must help our energy sector to survive.

Ukraine is also actively supported by foreign partners in this matter.

In particular, the Ukraine Energy Support Fund has raised about EUR 410 million from 13 partner countries along with the announced contributions. We use these funds to buy generators, transformers, spare parts, and carry out intensive repairs.

The United Kingdom has announced the allocation of more than USD 180 million to strengthen the Ukrainian energy sector.

Lithuania is donating equipment from its thermal power plants, nuclear power plants, and its depots.

Germany is sending 400 generators.

Decentralized generation is an effective way to compensate for the energy capacities destroyed by russian terrorists. We are also actively working on this.

80 cogeneration units have been distributed to the regions. First of all, they will be distributed to Kharkiv, where the situation is critical.

We are going to deploy the mini-TPP network quickly and intensively to have a safety margin at the start of the new heating season.

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We thank our partners for their effective support.

We thank all those who are bringing the victory closer at the front and in the rear.

Thank you for your attention! Glory to Ukraine!