Address by Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal

Heroic people of a great country.

The liberation war of the Ukrainian people has been going on for 5 weeks. Our defense forces continue to demilitarize the Russian army, destroying more than 4,000 units of various enemy equipment.

This is more than most armies in Europe and the world have.

And while our military is holding firmly the fort, we are building a strong economic

front to ensure the army is secured and the country continues to live and work for victory.

Today we can assert that in the last week the country began to return to work.

The business begins to recover after the first shock. The set of decisions in the field of tax, regulatory, customs and credit policy has certainly contributed to this.

At once several of the largest plants start operating.

In a couple of days, more than 120,000 entrepreneurs applied for the transition to a new 2% turnover tax system.

Over the last 24 hours, a thousand new individual entrepreneurs

have registered through the Diia system.

Almost 1,500 manufacturing companies have already applied for relocation. Several hundred have already moved or are currently moving from combat areas to continue working!

Sowing campaign has already started in 20 regions of Ukraine. This is really positive news, because at the same time last year sowing campaign began in only 15 regions.

We are cautiously optimistic about the area under spring crops. According to available data, sowing can be carried out on 6 million hectares of land. This is 80% of the area sown last year.

Today, our farmers are no less courageous and loyal to their front. Behind them is the future food security of the country and the world. We thank them for their courage and dedication.

Due to the state order for social products, our food industry will expand new capacities and hire new employees. We are talking about 300 such companies.

I would like to recall that the country buys 10 million food kits for Ukrainians who are in frontline cities, and then distributes them to people for free. These sets encapsulate more than 10 key products.

So far, 100% of cereals, pasta, oil, milk and sugar have been purchased. We also continue to purchase canned food, grain, bakery products, tea and coffee and other food.

Ukrzaliznytsia and Ukrposhta in synergy the with civil-military administrations are already delivering and distributing all these kits to people.

We see thousands of small and large businesses across the country returning to service.

That is why I appeal to the banks directors. Lend more actively and boldly to Ukrainian business within the support program "5-7-9". Today, the country needs your determination.

The Government will also soon consider and approve a separate loan product for retail chains to revive their cooperation with Ukrainian producers.

The state creates all the conditions to restart the economy and put it on military rails. This will give us a reserve of strength and resources to defeat the enemy.

The world continues to support Ukraine.

Yesterday he had talks with the Prime Ministers of Poland and Norway. Thank you for your support.

Norway allocates EUR 20 million to the budget for the Government to allocate to important programs. Prior to that, Norway also allocated

EUR 200 million for humanitarian aid.

The Council of Ministers of Poland has adopted a decree blocking coal imports from russia at the national level. In addition, the country plans to abandon russian oil this year.

A worthy position that other EU countries should follow.

Agreed on support from France for EUR 300 million. And about the grant from the European Union for EUR 120 million. These funds will go directly to the budget.

Yesterday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also agreed to allocate USD 500 million to Ukraine as direct budget assistance from the United States.

We praise everyone who supports Ukraine and the Ukrainian people.

We continue to receive thousands of tons of humanitarian aid from around the world. Its total volume is already over 163 thousand tons. Of these, Ukrzaliznytsia has already delivered 41,000 tons to the regions. Most in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Zaporizhia regions.

We are working on a plan to rebuild Ukraine. To do this, we systematically calculate all losses.

Yesterday Diia portal has already unveiled an opportunity to apply for compensation of the destroyed property. More than 20,000 such applications have been received in one day. All applications will be carefully processed so that after our victory the reconstruction would be systematic.

Apart from that, I would like to inform you that Ukraine is negotiating with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to ensure cthe organization's staff can be present at Ukrainian nuclear power plants. This should contribute to the additional safety of our NPPs and demonstrate Ukraine's openness to such important issues.

We also have agreements to provide various equipment for our nuclear facilities as international aid. Important support. Thank you for it.

Dear Ukrainians. We continue to work. We thank and believe in the Armed Forces and in our defenders. We believe in victory and spare no effort to bring it closer.

Glory to Ukrainians! Glory to Ukraine!