Deputy Minister of Development of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Oleksandra Azarkhina resigned in connection with the recent dismissal of Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov.

"Today I wrote a letter of resignation from the position of deputy minister in connection with the dismissal of the minister," she said on Facebook on Monday.

According to Azarkhina, Kubrakov's team received the direction of regional policy in 2023 in a situation where "there was no digitalization of processes, where there was chaos in documents, data and approaches. Where there was a manual control mode for everything. Where was the club of selected experts who dictated to everyone their uncontested vision of what Ukraine's regional policy based on EU principles is."

"When we took office, we built a strong team that was open to everyone, and created a step-by-step plan for restarting regional policy. The focus is on investments, verified data, and a territorially oriented approach. We began the complex process of synchronizing the issues of restoration and development, because even then it was obvious that the war would be with us for a long time," Azarkhina said.

According to her, the team met all the challenges and problems, understanding that it would be difficult, "that they would criticize and devalue our work. That at every step there are people who are not interested in our success. People who understand regional policy as control over advertising areas in regional centers, manual distribution of funds for regional development projects and endless tours in five-star hotels with fruitless discussions."

"We took the best that the previous team had, added our own experience and modern solutions. We have built systematic, transparent communication with foreign partners, because it is clear that today Ukraine would not have survived without the systemic support of its allies. The result is systemic government decisions, and not slogans about how to support the regions," she said.

Azarkhina noted four points that, in her opinion, were successful. In particular, she said, the foundation had been laid for a transparent, accountable, data-driven recovery led by local government within the unified framework of the government's regional strategy.

She said thanks to the bottom-up, data-driven and transparent approach, communities have become the driving force of recovery. And UAH 9.3 billion distributed in this way became an effective tool for supporting regional policy, including funds allocated for the implementation of 336 projects in 99 territorial communities.

In total, according to the deputy minister, in 2023, some 21.6 billion were allocated for 834 projects in communities and regions. All these projects were selected using a prioritization methodology developed on the basis of World Bank approaches and included in the DREAM system.

At the same time, Azarkhina said PMs approached her with their lists of "truly priority projects" for the restoration of communities, but all projects, without exception, were assessed by Transparency International Ukraine using a methodology developed jointly with the public.

Among the successful steps that the team was able to implement, she highlighted the rethinking of the State Fund for Regional Development, updating the text of the State Strategy for Regional Development and the government's approval of the action plan for reforming local self-government and the territorial organization of power in Ukraine for 2024-2027.

The Deputy Head of the Ministry of Reconstruction thanked the entire team that helped implement numerous initiatives, and stated that the core of the team is now preparing the Transition Book for successors.