Statement by Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal at Government session

Good afternoon, dear colleagues, fellow Ukrainians.

Yesterday we celebrated Ukraine’s Independence Day.

Many of our friends, allies and partners visited Ukraine. We held a number of productive meetings that make our country stronger.

We discussed the restoration of Ukraine’s infrastructure with the President of Portugal. Since the beginning of the year, thousands of facilities have been restored as part of the rapid recovery project. More than 10,000 families have already received state funding to repair their damaged homes. The State Agency for Restoration and Infrastructure Development will disclose the estimates for all construction projects.

We discussed the rehabilitation programmes for our soldiers and the humanitarian demining programme with the Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Ukraine is now the most mined country in the world. Bosnia and Herzegovina has experience in this area that can help. We are doing everything possible to ensure that the demining process does not take decades.

With the Prime Minister of Finland, we discussed the heating season, support for our energy system and the restoration of Ukraine. We will strengthen cooperation in this area, because the winter will also be difficult. We are preparing as much as we can. We have already pumped more than 13 billion cubic metres of gas. We are repairing and restoring our energy facilities.

We discussed in detail the issues of logistics and border cooperation with the Prime Minister of Moldova. This is important in the context of russia’s attempts to block the grain corridor in the Black Sea. We are starting to build a bridge over the Dniester and expand the capacity of border crossings. Ukraine is offering all its neighbours on the western border to set up joint customs control. This will speed up and simplify logistics and help reduce the risk of abuse.

With the Prime Minister of Norway, we discussed energy issues and support for small and medium-sized businesses. Thousands of Ukrainians have already received grants to start their own businesses under the eRobota programme. We are counting on support in this regard.

And, of course, we talked to each of our international friends about military assistance, our European integration aspirations, sanctions policy and financial support.

In the first 7 months of this year we fully financed all public spending. 1 trillion 600 billion hryvnias. This is an extraordinary amount, more than half of which has been spent on security and defence.

Thanks to constant work with our partners, we have managed to raise almost USD 30 billion in support of Ukraine since the beginning of the year.

We had many positive meetings on the sidelines of the Crimea Platform. We are preparing an updated economic model for the reconstruction of Crimea after its de-occupation. It includes a tourist centre in Europe, the inclusion of Crimea in the European transport space, the development of renewable energy and the gas shelf, small farms and winemaking, and an IT hub. We will implement all this.

This week, we also held the VI International Veterans Forum in Kyiv. We are developing a new policy for veterans in five main areas. The first is the creation of an infrastructure that will provide veterans with high-quality and efficient services; the second is economic activity through education and grants for veterans’ businesses; the third is rehabilitation; the fourth is affordable housing through preferential mortgage lending; and the fifth is honouring the feat of the military.

We are moving forward. We are helping the Security and Defence Forces. Ukraine is winning and Ukraine is changing.

Thank you for your attention. Glory to Ukraine!