Good afternoon, esteemed colleagues, dear Ukrainians.

We traditionally start with the situation in the energy sector. First of all. The situation remains difficult, but under control. This means that consumers are still being cut off in all regions. There are schedules of outages.

We are trying to reduce them in duration, but frosts have begun, and we see that electricity consumption is growing. Therefore, unfortunately, in some situations, we do not exclude emergency shutdowns. The call to save electricity remains critically important. This will protect us from unscheduled emergency shutdowns.

Secondly. Repairs and replacement of damaged equipment continue. According to preliminary estimates, the amount of losses of NPC Ukrenergo due to the military aggression of Russia is more than UAH 70 billion. There are 70 repair teams working on the restoration of power grids damaged by Russian missiles and drones. This is more than 1000 qualified specialists.

Third. Attention of the whole country is now focused on the situation in the energy sector. Therefore, as always happens in such cases, there are many rumors, and sometimes outright lies. Let’s finally dot the i’s and cross the t’s on some important issues.

First, Ukraine has not been selling electricity to the European Union since October 11, when a massive attack on our energy system began. That is, what our power plants are producing now – they are producing for Ukraine and Ukrainians.

Secondly, we see many questions about why some cities are cut off more often than others. Let’s not look for a black cat in a dark room when it is not there. Simply and briefly, between the power plant that produces electricity and our homes as end users are substations and networks that transport electricity. Russian terrorists strike at these facilities. Because of this, it is sometimes impossible to transport large amounts of electricity to certain regions or districts. Therefore, the restrictions are uneven across the country.

The third issue, to which I keep returning, concerns evacuation. We have a state company Ukrenergo, which constantly communicates the necessary clear information. There is the Ministry of Energy. There are responsible representatives of regional military administrations. The President, the Government also constantly inform about the state of affairs. Therefore, I ask you to be guided only by official information.

We thank our power engineers for their dedication and professionalism, which allows us to maintain the system in such extreme conditions. Therefore, whenever each of us has light at home, remember: somewhere in the field at the substation, the repair team worked 24 hours a day in the rain, in the cold, at night to keep this light on.

The second important topic that I would like to raise on the eve of winter is the social policy of the state. Almost 20 million Ukrainians today receive social benefits or use social services. Despite all the complexity of the situation, we have not delayed pensions and these social payments a single time. Moreover, pensions have been indexed. From March to October, pensions in the amount of UAH 387 billion were paid.

We provide economic support through various social benefits and payments for almost 6 million people. In total, over UAH 137 billion of various benefits have been paid in 10 months of this year. This month, social payments will amount to UAH 13.8 billion. This is assistance to large families, low-income families, single mothers, people with disabilities, including children.

An important aspect of social policy – tariffs remain unchanged. They will not grow until the end of the heating season. At the same time, subsidies will be paid in full. UAH 37 billion is provided for this purpose. We have introduced a number of additional programs, in particular for internally displaced persons. 2 million 200 thousand people receive such assistance now. In November, UAH 5.6 billion will be paid to them. In total, UAH 47.2 billion of relevant payments have been financed since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.

The state and the Government are helping and will continue to help.

Of course, our international partners and allies have already lent a shoulder of support to the Ukrainian state. We are negotiating almost daily with our partners on the increase of financial assistance and the launch of new support programs.

Today, the accounts of Ukraine have received EUR 2.5 billion of macro-financial assistance from the European Union. We are grateful for this support, which will allow the Government to finance the main critical expenditures this year.

Another important and also positive news regarding international cooperation is the allocation of EUR 200 million to Ukraine from Norway for the purchase of gas. The funds will be provided to Naftogaz. Prior to that, the EBRD agreed to provide EUR 300 million for the purchase of gas.

Also today, the Government will approve the procedure for using state budget funds for gas purchases in 2022-2023.

We are talking about UAH 12.7 billion, which Ukraine previously received from the Government of Canada. We transfer it to Naftogaz for the purchase of “blue fuel” to our gas storage facilities.

Actually, this is an extremely important part of the preparation to get through this difficult winter in a stable way.

We continue to work. We are increasing resilience of all our systems and the country. We are helping the Armed Forces. We will stand and win!

Thank you for your attention. Glory to Ukraine!