President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky expects representatives of local authorities to develop comprehensive measures to provide support to citizens and businesses in the face of increased quarantine measures in the regions.

"It is logical that local authorities should also think about various forms of support, introducing a lockdown on the ground. Together with the strengthening of quarantine, they should develop a set of measures to support the categories of citizens and businesses in their particular region, which may suffer due to the restrictions of the so-called red zones. I am waiting for relevant proposals from the local authorities to consider and approve them at the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities under the President of Ukraine next week," Zelensky said in his video message following the NSDC meeting on Friday, March 19.

The President also said that "the central government will add 100% to the amount of assistance proposed from local budgets to citizens and businesses that have suffered due to the lockdown, thus doubling the amount of support."

In order to make the provision of assistance as transparent as possible, and most importantly - fast, it should be transferred through the Diia portal and application, according to the head of state.

At the same time, Zelensky said that regional support measures cannot be introduced by local authorities in the format "there is a ban, but there is no support," or according to the principle "there is no money, but you should hold up."

The head of state also asked the Verkhovna Rada to be ready to accept as soon as possible all the changes that will become necessary to implement the proposals of local authorities and the government.

"Once again, I call on all representatives of the authorities at any level to act together, and citizens to be vigilant, observe security measures and take care of themselves. Their loved ones. And our Ukraine," Zelensky said.

He also said that in January 2021, along with the introduction of the first lockdown in Ukraine, on his behalf, the government prepared a wide range of support for citizens and businesses in form of direct financial assistance, assistance for children, compensation for partial unemployment, tax holidays and a number of other incentives.