Address by the Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal at a Gov't session

During these 110 days of full-fledged war, russia has brought to our country as much disaster and destruction as our country hasn't known since World War II. This is a terrible grief that cannot be forgotten and cannot be forgiven.

For the memory of those who gave their lives for the freedom of Ukraine, we must win and build a strong and prosperous Ukraine. We must rebuild what was destroyed better than it was before the war. This is a strategic task for the Government. Assess all the damage caused by the occupiers, prepare a reconstruction plan, find resources for its implementation. All three projects are taking place simultaneously and right now.

We have already creates a Special Commission to audit the damage caused by russia’s military aggression. It is important for us to calculate not only the cost of destroyed bridges and roads, but also the cost of human housing, damage to nature, unrealized profits and business investments. Such miscalculations are important, because they are one of the pillars of the future reconstruction plan.

russian troops destroyed tens of thousands of homes. According to the smallest estimates, 45 million square meters of housing were damaged. Some towns and villages are almost completely destroyed.

Today, the Government will approve a single and unified form that will record the damage caused to the housing of Ukrainians by russian troops. Previously, such a certificate was drawn up in any form, which led to a large number of questions and misunderstandings. Now we are unifying everything. Every citizen whose home is damaged or destroyed will have a digital document confirming his or her losses. With this decision, we are also laying the groundwork for a future register of damaged property.

How will it be carried out? First, the Government is now approving the form of the site inspection report and the mechanism for drawing it up. Regional commissions will be established at the community level, each commission will consist of three people who will fill out an act with information on the type of damage. Is the foundation, facade, walls, windows, floor, doors and other structures damaged? All this is recorded and confirmed by digital signatures of commission members. All new acts will be compiled in digital form through the Diia system. All previous acts will be digitized and entered into the appropriate database. Local authorities will continue to be responsible for the implementation of this process.

So far, Ukrainians have filed more than 206,000 claims of damaged and destroyed housing through the Diia platform. All these applications are now being forwarded to the relevant authorities. The destruction is verified by the commission and then the person will be able to see in the Diia a document confirming the damage.

The second stage of this large process is the development of a unified estimated cost estimate. The Ministry of Communities and Territories Development is currently working on it. What is it about? For example, if there were windows of different categories and values in one house, the value of the property according to the unified standard will be reimbursed. The average price of ordinary windows will be taken into account, not the price at which each particular window was purchased before. Once the appropriate estimate has been made, a person will be able to see the total amount of damage for each object. In the future, this is the amount that will be reimbursed to people.

The process of compensation and payments will be shaped more detailed after the adoption of the bill "On compensation for damage and destruction of certain categories of real estate as a result of hostilities, terrorist acts, sabotage caused by military aggression of the Russian Federation." The Government is waiting for the law to be passed to begin work on the reimbursement process. This project is currently being considered by the Verkhovna Rada. I am sure that the MPs will support such an important decision for the country in the near future.

In fact, this will give us the opportunity to launch the third stage. After recording and assessing the damage, people will be able to receive funds for the destroyed property. In our opinion, this should also happen through Diia platform, so that the whole process is as transparent, open, simple and fair as possible.

I would also like to note the important nuance that the recording and assessment of losses is currently possible only in fully deoccupied and safe areas. Where active hostilities continue or there is a temporary occupation, losses will be recorded after the final liberation of these cities and communities.

Another aspect that is important to talk about is when people will be able to get money for destroyed housing. Tens of thousands of destroyed houses and apartments are billions. The minimum estimate now is over USD 40 billion. There is no such amount in the budget at the moment, because we spend all our funds on the defense of our country, as well as on social benefits.

Therefore, the Government says that the full process of reimbursement will begin immediately after the confiscated russian funds in the West reach Ukraine. Now these hundreds of billions of russian dollars are frozen by the governments of our partners. We are constantly working with everyone to transfer funds to Ukraine for reconstruction. We are making some progress with Canada and the United States, working with European countries and the United Kingdom. A special working group has been set up. We involve the world's best lawyers.

We work every day to make russia fully feel the price for its horrible terrible and bloody aggression against our country.

And one more. Before moving on to the agenda, I want to raise another issue that we hear more and more from business. We are talking about raising the discount rate of the NBU to 25% and the future of affordable lending program "5-7-9". I want to assure everyone that the program was, is and will be. Despite the situation with rates and the decision of the National Bank, we will develop a program so that small and medium-sized businesses not only survive, but also have the opportunity to grow.

After the start of a full-scale war, we issue available loans averaging over UAH 2 billion a week. This has allowed thousands of Ukrainian entrepreneurs and their employees to resume their jobs. Therefore, "5-7-9" will not sink into oblivion. Rates on this program will continue to be reduced. We are currently working to simplify the conditions for obtaining such loans.

The Government continues to create the best conditions for Ukrainian business, as it understands that business is the backbone for the growth and recovery of any economy.

Thank you for attention.

Glory to Ukraine!