Hundreds of kilometers of new fortifications built along entire front line – Ukraine's PM

Shmyhal said this at a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers, which took place in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.

"Intensive work has been going on since last year. So far, hundreds of kilometers of new fortifications have been built along the entire front line. And the pace of construction is constantly increasing," he said.

Shmyhal added that in this context, a separate area of the state's work is the involvement of engineering equipment from partners.

"These are machines for earthworks and the removal of obstacles, machines for the disposal of mines and explosives, repair and evacuation vehicles, trucks suitable for work on the front line, tractors and many other engineering equipment that Ukraine needs. We are working to ensure that we have enough of these auxiliary means," he said.

According to him, at the beginning of 2024, the government allocated UAH 20 billion from the state budget's reserve fund for fortifications, and additional funds from other sources of financing reached UAH 10.7 billion.

"Out of the total amount from the reserve fund, almost UAH 3 billion was transferred to the Ministry of Defense and State Special Transport Service. More than UAH 16 billion was allocated to regional administrations," he said.

Shmyhal added that the construction of strong defensive lines is "the second goal of our defense policy."

He noted that the defensive lines were being built at the expense of the reserve fund of the state budget, at the expense of local budgets, at the expense of the military personal income tax and charitable funds kept in a special account of the National Bank of Ukraine.

He specified that UAH 3.9 billion had been allocated for the construction of fortifications in the Kharkiv region, UAH 1.3 billion in the Zaporizhzhia region, UAH 1.2 billion in the Donetsk region, and more than UAH 1.2 billion in the Kherson region.

On January 12, in order to strengthen Ukraine's defense capabilities, the Cabinet of Ministers allocated an additional UAH 2.5 billion for the construction of engineering and fortification structures.

Photo credit: Denys Shmyhal / Telegram