The Government of Ukraine has amended the co-financing mechanism for measures to protect critical infrastructure facilities, allowing frontline regions to pay a smaller share of the costs for implementing regional Resilience Plans ahead of the winter period.
This is reported by Finway
“The government has clearly defined that the requirement for co-financing from local budgets applies exclusively to communal property. This decision has been made considering that communities are already directing significant resources to the Defense Forces and the basic needs of the population.”
Changes in Co-Financing for Affected Regions
For most regions of Ukraine, the basic requirement for co-financing remains at no less than 20% of the total cost of works. At the same time, for regions most affected by Russian attacks, the mandatory share from local budgets has been significantly reduced:
- to 10% – for Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Kherson, and Chernihiv regions;
- to 15% – for Dnipropetrovsk region.
These changes are intended to reduce the financial pressure on communities that are already incurring significant expenses to support the Defense Forces and meet the basic needs of the population. It should be noted that the new co-financing procedure applies only to communal property.
Support for Local Business and Financing
Another important innovation is the official granting of rights to local self-government bodies to finance local businesses for the implementation of Resilience Plans. Such financing is possible from the reserve fund on a non-repayable basis. This is expected to facilitate the swift transition from planning to practical implementation of projects in the fields of energy, heating, and water supply.
The total cost of implementing Resilience Plans at the national level is estimated at 278 billion UAH. The state has already allocated 22.8 billion UAH for priority measures to protect energy facilities, develop distributed generation, ensure additional power sources for heating and water supply facilities, as well as decentralize heating for critical facilities. It is worth noting that in March, the Cabinet of Ministers allocated the first tranche of 12.85 billion UAH for the implementation of regional Resilience Plans.