In Kharkiv, at a meeting of the presidium of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities chaired by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Energy Independence Program, which envisages "green" transformation of the economy and increasing energy efficiency, in particular through thermal modernization of residential buildings, was presented.
The President noted that energy independence is the key to a strong state, so he initiated a program of thermal modernization, which aims to reduce the consumption of imported energy.
"This year, measures will be taken to launch this program in about 5,000 high-rise residential buildings in Ukraine," said Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
According to the President, as a result of the implementation of this program, more than 1.5 million citizens will be able to pay less for heating next season.
"We are talking about 700,000 families living in such apartment buildings. I think the effect will be large-scale - savings of almost 8 billion hryvnias for the heating season 2022-2023. These are released funds for social programs, salary increases, development projects, increase of guarantees for the most vulnerable categories of the population," the Head of State stressed.
Thanks to this program, Ukraine will be able to reduce gas imports by 2.5% in the next heating season.
"This is especially important today, when the aggressor state uses energy as a weapon," First Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Economy of Ukraine Yulia Svyryidenko noted.
She also noted that thermal modernization will create about 170 thousand new jobs.
In the context of energy sustainability, Yulia Svyrydenko also said that today there are 10.7 billion cubic meters of gas in underground gas storage facilities, and at the end of the heating season 7 billion cubic meters are expected to remain, so the need for imports will be insignificant. Coal reserves in TPP warehouses are almost 1 million tons.
In addition, Ukraine will soon conduct a test for energy independence. "For three days we will be disconnected from the energy system of Russia and Belarus. If we pass this test well, we will integrate our system with the European Union's energy system and join ENTSO-E," she said.
Also, according to Yulia Svyrydenko, the government is now closely monitoring world oil prices, which are growing rapidly leading to higher prices for gasoline and diesel in Ukraine.
"We are developing a comprehensive plan to stabilize this situation," said the First Deputy Prime Minister.
Yulia Svyrydenko also reported on the economic situation in the country. In particular, she noted that Ukraine has been living in a state of constant tension and conflict for eight years, so the national economy has adapted to this situation.
According to her, last year Ukraine's dollar GDP amounted to more than $ 200 billion, which is the highest figure in the history of our country's independence and even exceeds the records of 2007 and 2008 - before the occupation of Crimea and Donbas.
According to the First Deputy Prime Minister, due to GDP growth, the government raised the minimum wage to UAH 6,500, while the average wage increased by 21% to UAH 14,000, and this growth significantly exceeded inflation.
Also, she stressed, due to high revenues, the state budget deficit fell to 3.5% of GDP last year, and public debt is now below 50% of GDP.
The international reserves of the National Bank of Ukraine at the end of 2021 were the highest in nine years - $ 31 billion, covering four months of imports. Such reserves allowed the NBU to stabilize the exchange rate when information tensions around Ukraine began to rise in early January. As there were no economic reasons for the growth of the exchange rate, in a short time it fell below 28 hryvnias per dollar.
"We can say that the panic is over," Yulia Svyrydenko said.
Ukraine has also started the current fiscal year successfully: UAH 20 billion more in taxes and duties was received in January 2022 than in January 2021. Therefore, as Yulia Svyrydenko noted, Ukraine has financial strength.
