Statement by Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal at Government session

Dear colleagues! Fellow Ukrainians!

We are beginning another meeting of the Government.

Ukraine is steadily implementing its strategic choice in favour of a united Europe.

We have moved at a record pace from submitting our EU membership application to launching pre-accession negotiations.

Our ambitious goal for 2025 is to open all six negotiation clusters with the EU in parallel.

Recently, the Government approved Ukraine’s negotiation position for Cluster 1 – Fundamentals. The document has already been submitted to the European Commission.

Today, we are reviewing and approving negotiation positions for Cluster 2 – Internal Market and Cluster 6 – External Relations.

These are official documents that contain our proposals and outline our priorities and commitments regarding future membership.

The second cluster covers key areas of the functioning of the EU single market. In particular, the free movement of goods and services, labour and capital, competition rules and consumer protection. This is what Ukrainian business and all Ukrainians need.

The sixth cluster concerns foreign policy, security and defence. Among other things, this is our contribution to a secure future for a united Europe and the protection of the continent from the russian threat.

It is important that the European Commission shares our optimism and is already set to open negotiations on Cluster 1 in June.

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Within the country, one of the key challenges is the coming winter.

To ensure that people have light and heat in winter, we are setting up a headquarters to prepare for the heating season. It will be headed by Deputy Prime Minister for Restoration and Minister for Communities and Territories Development Oleksii Kuleba.

The headquarters will coordinate the actions of central and local executive authorities, facilitate the creation of regional and city headquarters, promptly resolve problematic issues, and monitor the preparation of housing and communal services facilities for winter.

The volume of gas injected into storage facilities in May exceeded last year’s figures for the same period by 40%.

We have already commissioned 130 MW of cogeneration unit capacity and 250 MW of thermal capacity from modular boiler houses. In total, we plan to connect over 900 MW of such capacities in 2025

We also have more than EUR 1.1 billion in contributions to the Ukraine Energy Support Fund. This is a resource for the procurement of energy equipment for the restoration and modernisation of energy infrastructure.

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Ukraine is maintaining macrofinancial stability despite extremely difficult conditions.

We already have a staff-level agreement on the eighth review of the cooperation programme with the International Monetary Fund. Once the decision is approved by the Fund’s Executive Board, we expect a new tranche of approximately USD 500 million.

Today, we are also adopting a decision to attract funds from Japan. This is nearly USD 3 billion, backed by revenues from frozen russian assets, to finance priority budget expenditures.

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Security and defence are also constantly in our focus. We have two important pieces of news.

First, under Finland’s leadership during our meeting with Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, a new civil defence shelter coalition was created. We expect other countries to actively join it. Thanks to the coalition, we plan to raise up to EUR 14 billion for the construction of shelters.

Another strengthening is the potential expansion of the drone coalition to 20 participants. Belgium and Turkey have announced their intention to join. The coalition members have pledged to allocate EUR 2.75 billion to Ukraine this year. I am grateful to all our friends, in particular Latvia, for their leadership in the coalition.

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Alongside security and defence, investment in human capital is a cross-cutting policy of the Government and the state.

We approve the resolution on the introduction of a one-time payment of UAH 200,000 for graduates of medical universities who take up employment in medical institutions in rural areas or in areas of active combat operations. This is effective support for young professionals and a means of overcoming the shortage of medical personnel in the field.

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I am grateful to each and every one who is defending Ukraine on the front lines today, who is working for our stability in the rear, who is contributing to our better peaceful European future.

Thank you for your attention!

Glory to Ukraine!