Today, Ukraine is fully integrated into the European energy market, continues its European integration path, and introduces and develops programmes to support Ukrainian business. This was emphasised by Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal at a press conference marking the fifth anniversary of the Government’s work, where he announced the main achievements.

The Prime Minister noted that Ukraine had completely disconnected from the russian and belarusian energy grid in the first days of the full-scale invasion.

In addition, Ukraine has also fully switched to domestically produced gas and refused to transit russian gas.

“We have achieved complete energy independence from russia,” said Denys Shmyhal.

He emphasised that Ukraine continued to pursue a course of rapprochement with the EU.

“Today, we are a candidate country and have moved on to concrete membership negotiations. We expect to open all the negotiation clusters this year: three in the first half of the year, and three more by the end of the year,” the Head of Government said.

The Government also continues to work on the introduction of “visa-free regimes” with the EU or integration into the European single market.

“Joining ENTSO-E, trade without duties, transport visa-free regime, unified customs declaration – all of this is already working and helping Ukrainians and Ukrainian businesses. We continue to work to become an integral part of the EU internal market,” said Denys Shmyhal.

The Prime Minister stressed that the Cabinet of Ministers was actively implementing and developing programmes to support Ukrainian business.

In particular, the programmes under the Made in Ukraine policy are successfully operating, including the 5-7-9 concessional lending programme, compensation for Ukrainian agricultural machinery and power equipment, eRobota, eOselia and industrial parks. The Government will continue to fund these initiatives.

“Since the start of the 5-7-9 programme in 2020, businesses have attracted 106,500 loans worth UAH 369.4 billion. Since July 2022, grants for more than UAH 12 billion have been issued under the eRobota project, including more than UAH 5 billion to support small and medium-sized businesses. In 2024 alone, more than 50,000 enterprises and entrepreneurs received state support,” said Denys Shmyhal.