President Poroshenko: Reforms must be for the benefit all Ukrainian citizens

18.03.2019 10:11

Ukrinform

President Petro Poroshenko has stated that the reforms carried out in the country must be for the benefit all Ukrainian citizens.

He stated this on Ukraine TV channel, when speaking about the successful steps in the implementation of reforms and the revival of the country's economy, the president’s press service reported on Sunday evening.

“Ukraine has not just revived. Ukraine has created a new army... the army that guarantees the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of our state,” he said.

Also, Poroshenko noted that the state platform was created to protect the Ukrainian language: "Nobody forced anyone [to speak Ukrainian]. We protect the rights of other national minorities to speak their own language.”

He also stressed that Ukraine had received the Tomos of autocephaly of the Orthodox Church.

As to the issue of Ukraine’s steps towards the European Union, Poroshenko reminded that the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement and the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area were concluded, and the European markets for Ukrainian goods were opened. Ukrainians got the right to travel freely to the EU countries after the introduction of the visa-free regime

In his speech, he also noted that creation the New Ukrainian School and the reform of rural medicine.

Poroshenko also recalled that a fundamentally new system of public procurement had been created over the past five years, and the state had reached energy independence from the aggressor country.

"And I am pleased that all international experts, the IMF, the International Finance Corporation, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the G7 state that Ukraine has carried out more reforms over the past five years than in the previous 23 years," he said.

At the same time, the President said that Ukraine is still striving for the restoration of its territorial integrity. "We failed to free Crimea. We failed to free Donbas. Although, we freed two-thirds of the occupied Donbas," he said.

According to Poroshenko, the direct armed aggression of the regular troops of the Russian Federation prevented Ukrainian troops from liberating the whole Donbas.