Good afternoon, dear colleagues, dear Ukrainians.

We are starting a regular Government meeting.

Yesterday, the President of Ukraine said in a video address that the russian occupiers had started a decisive battle for Donbas. They hurled all their efforts into there. They continue to shell Ukrainian cities.

Our Armed Forces are holding the fort in all directions, including the hero city of Mariupol. We believe in our victory and we believe in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Providing our defenders remains a priority for the Government. We allocate billions of hryvnias for this every week.

Today we will decide to allocate almost UAH 17 billion to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. These are funds for border guards, the National Guard, the police, who are part of our defense forces and are destroying the russian occupiers all over the front.

We are allocating an additional sum of almost UAH 16 billion for the Ministry of Defence. The main funds will be allocated for the payment of salaries to the military, for the repair and modernization of equipment, and for payments to the families of fallen heroes.

While our soldiers bravely defend the eastern and southern borders, the country is returning to work. Ukrainians are returning home. More than a million of our citizens have returned to their homeland since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the russian federation.

The Government continues to implement a major program of gradual reconstruction of deoccupied cities. At today's meeting we will adopt three documents in this direction. These decisions are designed to ensure the sequence of inspection of damaged buildings, the procedure of execution of works, the order of decision-making on partial or complete dismantling, the stages of dismantling of facilities. We also simplify the examination of construction projects and the development of overhaul projects. All this is necessary in order for us to be 100% ready to rebuild our cities quickly.

The documents adopted today are part of a comprehensive plan that envisages the reconstruction of everything destroyed, the modernization of state structures and the maximum acceleration of Ukraine's development.

Every week we endorse decisions for the social support of Ukrainians. Despite all the difficulties, we continue to finance all social expenditures: pensions, benefits, subsidies. Pensions have already been financed for UAH 37 billion, or more than 75% of all April payments.

Today we will approve the procedure for allocating subsidies and the algorithm for their calculation and payment for those of our settlements that are currently under temporary occupation.

Almost 1.5 million people have officially registered as internally displaced persons. We started paying to  them on April 8, UAH 2,000 for each adult and UAH 3,000 for a child or a person with a disability. So far, 250,000 people have received their funds. We will gradually transfer money to all our IDPs.

Providing our army, rebuilding destroyed cities, paying social benefits are simply impossible without a functioning economy. Compared to March, we are really recording a somewhat positive recovery dynamics. The tax, credit and regulatory changes we have launched are helping businesses stay afloat and rebuild. Over the past week, more than 2,500 applications have been submitted from various companies for loans at 0% under the 5-7-9 program.

Loans at 0% worth almost UAH 8.3 billion were attracted for sowing. The state has already helped about 3,000 agricultural enterprises to sow. As of April 18, the projected sown areas of the main spring crops in the controlled area are 14.2 million hectares. This is 2.7 million hectares less than last year. That is, in fact, this year we will sow more than 80% of last year's areas with spring crops.

As I have already emphasized, tax and regulatory benefits for business have become the basis of wartime economic policy. Today we are taking another step in this direction. We are expanding the legal regime of the Diia City, which was launched this year, to such types of technological activities as development and technical support of card payment system products; production of electronic components and boards, computers and equipment; operation of cloud data centers, etc. With this decision, we provide a good additional incentive for the development of high technology in Ukraine.

And finally. A historic event took place yesterday. Ukraine submitted answers to the questionnaire for EU candidate status. We received it a week ago. And in record time our team filled it. It was a coordinated and truly professional work of the Government, the Office of the President, MPs and public experts. Thank you all very much for this work. We are one step closer to the EU. We hope that the European solution will be just as quick in response.

Today we are submitting a draft law aimed to ensure the free circulation on the territory of Ukraine of goods that meet the requirements for the safety of EU non-food products. Our main goal is the European future, European standards in everything. After the war, we plan to build a new Ukrainian economy that will be part of a larger European one. We have already joined the European power grid, we are talking about a single payment space and free roaming. Ukraine will win and will be a wealthy, free member of the European Union.