On 2 November, a meeting was held at Government House as part of the cooperation between the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The topic of discussion was the transfer of equipment and technical solutions to the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers by USAID’s Cybersecurity for Critical Infrastructure in Ukraine Activity.

The event was attended by Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers Oleh Nemchinov, State Secretary of the Cabinet of Ministers Oleksandr Yarema, Deputy State Secretary of the Cabinet of Ministers Ihor Yaremenko, Director of the Department of Information Technology and Security of the Cabinet of Ministers Ivan Romanenko, Chargé d’Affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine Robert Needham, Acting Director of the USAID Mission to Ukraine Theodora Dell, Deputy Director of USAID Ukraine’s Office of Democracy and Governance Ann Hopper, and Deputy Chief of Party, USAID’s Cybersecurity Activity, Iryna Khomenko.

The Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers thanked the American people and USAID for their assistance in modernising the information and communication systems of the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers, which ensured the sustainable operation of the Government Portal, electronic document management, videoconferencing system and e-government portal.

Oleh Nemchinov stressed the importance of installing such a security system in the face of Russian aggression.

“We have survived the siege of Kyiv and massive attacks. And with each of these challenges, we added a backup source of energy. Today we have several sources of energy and we are working on an alternative source in the form of solar panels,” the Minister said, commenting on the operation of the equipment provided under the project.

Oleksandr Yarema, State Secretary of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, emphasised that the implementation of this project not only protected the information and communication systems of the Secretariat, but also helped to establish effective work.

“We have the opportunity to organise an independent workplace and remote access for employees, which is very important for productive work,” said Oleksandr Yarema. The State Secretary added that there was a large number of cyber-attacks, but the protection in place made it possible to overcome them quite well.

Robert Needham, Charge d’Affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, said his country was proud to help Ukraine and noted the effective cooperation between the staff of the Cabinet of Ministers and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

In conclusion, the parties agreed to further deepen cooperation and stressed that this would not be the last joint project in the field of cybersecurity of Ukraine’s critical infrastructure.