Poroshenko: Ukraine stops to import over 50,000 commodity items from Russia

Over the past two years, Ukraine has substituted more than 50,000 commodity items as part of a policy on the substitution of products previously imported from Russia.

"Over the past two years, just two years, we substituted more than 50,000 commodity items, which were previously delivered from overseas. Where were they delivered from? They were delivered from Russia," President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko said during the meeting with the heads of industrial enterprises of Kharkiv region, representatives of the energy sector, science, and education, world energy companies in Kharkiv, the press service of the Head of State reports.

According to him, the substitution, in particular, allowed to continue the work of the country’s defense enterprises.

"They [Russians] thought they would stop our defense industry, our army. Last year, the workshops of the Kharkiv Special Machine Plant worked in two shifts, because the number of orders exceeded the plant capacities," the President underscored.

Currently, 447 enterprises work for defense purposes in Ukraine.

Poroshenko also reminded that in 2014, 2015, 2016 all the state resources had been aimed at creating the army.

The President added that the Ukrainian army now enjoyed the highest level of trust of Ukrainian society that, in his opinion, is directly connected with the restoration of the military-industrial complex and the development of the import substitution program.

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