President: Fighting poverty is becoming a matter of national security

“Today, in addition to the defense of the state, and you know what our team did for the defense, in addition to foreign policy, and you know what we did, the issue of overcoming poverty, fighting poverty becomes the issue of national security of the state. And this is already the direct competence of the President,” President Petro Poroshenko stressed on Ukraine TV channel.

“We understand that to date, those who suffered the most from the Russian aggression are pensioners. Because minimum wages are increasing, average wages are increasing, social payments are increasing. Pensions are increasing more slowly. That is why, in 2017, it was decided to hold annual indexing. This is our first shot in the fight against poverty,” he stressed.

“The growth of the economy will be reflected not only in figures, indices, ratings, but also in the wallets of Ukrainians,” he said.

The Head of State also notes that monetization of subsidies was carried out and people began to receive subsidies in cash. According to him, it gives citizens an opportunity to save on consumption of services and keep this money.

According to the President, payments to large families for each third and the next child will also be raised. The relevant decision was made by the Cabinet of Ministers, he said.

Petro Poroshenko noted that opponents accused him of bribing voters, calling the increase in payments to pensioners, large families and military personnel a bribery. He also noted that he was not going to stop raising social payments and standards of living. “This is a position on which we will not compromise with anyone,” the President said.

According to the Head of State, in the first five years we have defended the country from bankruptcy and default: “We stove off a threat of default, we maintained a controlled budget deficit, stabilized the banking system. We created a solid economic foundation for an economic breakthrough”.