Poroshenko Warns of Ukraine’s Toughest Autumn Yet and Outlines Survival Plan
Ukraine is entering what could be its most difficult autumn since gaining independence and must be fully prepared for another wartime winter. Key priorities include protecting civilians, supplying the army, developing defense technologies, supporting businesses, restoring export logistics, and strengthening communities’ energy resilience.
This was stated by the fifth president of Ukraine, leader of European Solidarity, Petro Poroshenko, in a video address.
Poroshenko stressed that the main danger this fall may be not only Russia’s actions but also the state’s lack of readiness for new challenges. He noted that Ukraine is entering the fall without a defense minister, head of the SBU, or minister of foreign affairs.
“The biggest danger this fall is not only what the enemy will do. The biggest danger is to meet his blows with a state that is incapable,” Poroshenko said.
He also stressed that over the past month, Russia has been attacking Ukrainian enterprises, warehouses, logistics centers, retail facilities, energy and ports. According to Poroshenko, the halt in exports is deepening the economic crisis, and part of Ukrainian business today is forced to think not about development but about survival.
The fifth president is convinced that during war, warehouses of products, logistics centers, and enterprises should be considered part of the state’s stability and national security.
According to him, businesses today need insurance against military risks, access to financing, protection of critical logistics, a moratorium on groundless inspections and coercion, export support, and mechanisms for rapid recovery of enterprises after Russian attacks.
“This is the wartime economy. Not an economy in which the state commands business. But an economy in which the state takes its hands off the throats of those who fill the budget and finance the army,” Poroshenko emphasized.
He reported that the European Solidarity team has been meeting with entrepreneurs, military personnel, manufacturers, community representatives, and experts over the past month and has prepared its own action plan.
Poroshenko called the protection of people the first priority. He recalled that back in 2024, European Solidarity submitted legislative proposals on shelters, but the parliament has not yet considered them.
In his opinion, each community should have a clear standard of resilience that includes shelter, backup power, water, heat, communications, sewage, essential supplies, and alternative logistics. Poroshenko proposes to put the use of UAH 40 billion allocated for resilience plans under public control.
He named the army as the second priority. Poroshenko called for the return of UAH 40 billion, which, he said, was used to reduce weapons purchases.
“Defense is the first budget priority,” the politician emphasized.
According to him, the military needs drones, ammunition, electronic warfare, countermeasures against technical intelligence, and protection. Poroshenko also called for the introduction of a new motivational model of service with clear terms, rotations, increased payments depending on the length of service, a starting package for mobilized personnel, and modern social guarantees.
Poroshenko named the development of defense technologies as a separate direction. According to him, modern warfare is increasingly becoming a war of engineers, algorithms, drones, robotic systems, artificial intelligence, and electronic warfare.
He proposed creating an accelerated path from testing and codification to contract and large-scale production for technologies that have already proven their effectiveness on the front lines.
“In a technological war, the one who has the shortest path from idea to trench wins,” Poroshenko noted.
European Solidarity also proposes an economic resilience package. It should include war risk insurance, affordable financing to help businesses recover from Russian attacks, a moratorium on coercive pressure and groundless inspections, protection of logistics hubs and critical warehouses, as well as export support programs and predictable rules for business.
Poroshenko called winter preparations another key task. He believes that the government should now present a map of Ukraine’s energy sustainability to the Verkhovna Rada.
“You don’t need to prepare for winter when the first snow falls,” the fifth president emphasized.
Poroshenko also called for accelerating European integration. In his opinion, each minister should be personally responsible for their part of the negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the European Union, and the authorities should establish a calendar of necessary laws and decisions, with specific deadlines and designated responsible persons.
Among the necessary steps, he named ensuring the rule of law, rebooting the State Bureau of Investigation, changes in the work of the State Financial Monitoring Service, guarantees of the independence of the NABU and the SAPO, as well as the cessation of politically motivated prosecutions.
Poroshenko also once again called for the United Marathon to be stopped and the funds spent on it to be directed to the needs of the military. Independent TV channels, he said, need to return to digital broadcasting.
Separately, the leader of European Solidarity raised the issue of government accountability. He proposed that the prime minister report quarterly to the Verkhovna Rada on the implementation of the government program.
Poroshenko also believes that a separate state goal should be Ukraine’s preparation for a possible ceasefire.
“Peace, if there is a chance for it, will also require a prepared army, economy, diplomacy, and state,” he emphasized.
Poroshenko stated that European Solidarity is ready to support solutions that strengthen the army, create more opportunities for Ukrainian producers, protect businesses, strengthen the independence of the judiciary, and accelerate Ukraine’s accession to the EU.
At the same time, according to him, the faction will not vote for decisions that create new obstacles for entrepreneurs, increase bureaucratic arbitrariness, or involve inefficient spending of public funds.
“A country that is fighting for survival cannot afford an inefficient state. Autumn is already beginning. Winter will come. We must act immediately,” Poroshenko concluded.