First Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Economy of Ukraine Yuliia Svyrydenko and Secretary of State for Transport of the United Kingdom Mark Harper discussed the special importance of infrastructure in preserving the resilience of the Ukrainian people.

Destruction of the power grid, blocking of ports and other infrastructure damages is a barbaric attempt by russia to harm civilians in Ukraine and around the world.

The UK Government supports Ukraine in its efforts to preserve and rebuild its infrastructure – energy, transport and communications.

It is especially important that political support is reinforced by the interest of UK businesses to implement infrastructure projects in Ukraine. The focus was on the implementation of early recovery projects in Ukraine during the meeting.

“In summer, during the UK-Ukraine Infrastructure Summit in London, Ukraine and the UK as well as representatives of UK businesses signed a Memorandum on Infrastructure Rebuilding of Ukraine. The Memorandum opens the way for UK businesses to fully participate in reconstruction of our country’s infrastructure destroyed by russia,” Yuliia Svyrydenko said.

Ukraine and the UK are currently working on a pilot project to restore destroyed bridges in the de-occupied territories.

In addition, Minister of Economy of Ukraine Yuliia Svyrydenko and Secretary of State for Transport Mark Harper stressed that sanctions in the transport sector against the Russian federation are particularly effective. Ukraine and the UK will continue to work together to develop new sanctions and coordinate sanctions policy towards russia.

For reference

The UK has already imposed the following sanctions against the Russian federation:

• banned russian vessels from entering its ports, while this restriction also applies to vessels chartered by russia;
• imposed sanctions against russian propagandists and state media that disseminate false information about russia’s war against Ukraine;
• the UK tax regulator revoked the status of the Moscow Exchange as a recognized stock exchange (the decision entered into force on 5 May 2022);
• imposed sanctions against individuals and legal entities, in particular russian military-industrial enterprises (since the russian invasion of Ukraine, the UK has imposed sanctions against more than 1,000 individuals and more than 100 companies; sanctions lists are periodically updated);
• imposed sanctions against the russian aviation sector, namely Aeroflot, Ural Airlines and Rossiya airlines.