Ukrainian governmental and non-governmental organizations, scientific institutions have already submitted more than 40 applications for participation in the EU environmental restoration grant program LIFE with a budget of more than EUR5 billion, Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources Ruslan Strilets said.

"As of today, more than 40 applications have been submitted from Ukraine to participate in the competition of the EU LIFE program. But the competition program still lasts until November 16. Therefore, I hope that there will be more. Although at the beginning we expected only a dozen and a half from Ukraine applications," he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

At the same time, the minister added that Ukraine became the first country in the thirty-year history of the LIFE program, which had the opportunity to participate in it even before full accession to the EU.

"This allows Ukraine to raise funds for the restoration of wildlife," said Strilets.

According to him, among the submitted applications there are projects for the creation of systems for monitoring the state of the environment, the revitalization of water objects in Ukraine, the construction of hydraulic structures, which will allow our country to solve long-standing environmental problems.

"In particular, for many years everyone has been talking about the transboundary problem of migrating garbage along the Tisa River. But there was not even a technological solution. We, together with specialists, found such a solution in the construction of an autonomous facility for capturing and subsequent processing of plastic, which for decades, over the course of the Tisa, fell outside Ukraine," explained Strilets.

He clarified that the State Water Agency has already prepared and submitted an application to LIFE for co-financing.

"The cost of the project is approximately UAH 350 million, of which only 6% is provided for financing by Ukraine, and the rest by European partners," Strilets said.