KIEV, December 31. /ITAR-TASS/. Ukraine's financial stability “does not evoke any doubts” thanks to landmark agreements with Russia, Ukrainian Prime Minister Nikolai Azarov said in a New Year congratulatory message to citizens on Tuesday.

“Restoration of full-fledged partnership relations with Russia has averted the worst scenario for the economy of our country, " he said.

"A fair market gas price was set, the restriction in bilateral trade was lifted, strategic projects in industrial co-operation were determined," Azarov noted.

"Russia decided to allocate a $15 billion credit to Ukraine quite quickly on very profitable terms. Now, financial stability in Ukraine does not evoke any doubts. All this permits our enterprises to plan confidently the output and sales of production next year."

Most important, that made people confident they would have stable jobs and good incomes for families, the premier added.

Azarov urged Ukrainians “to feel themselves as a common nation and a common state.” “Only together is it possible to overcome modern challenges,” the premier said, adding “All of us have one common goal: that we want to live in an independent and rich country.”

Reflecting on the outgoing year, the prime minister said he believed Ukrainians “lived quite a difficult year, full of problems and achievements.”

“Despite the impact of the economic crisis, the government has done its best to meet social commitments for Ukrainian people as salaries, pensions, scholarships and allowances were paid," he said.

"Meanwhile, the government has averted an economic slump and a halt of domestic manufacturing industries that was actually very difficult amid a deteriorating climate on the markets and trade restriction for domestic producers," the premier added.

"We prevented the national currency from devaluation and avoided growth in utility bills and prices on principal consumption goods. We have not just survived in the hardest conditions, but we have also modernized our economy,” he said, citing commissioning of the Dniester hydroelectric power station, said to be the largest and most efficient in Europe, construction of 100 new enterprises and a record grain harvest of 63 million tonnes in the outgoing year.

Azarov recalled that at the end of 2013, Ukraine had “to take a difficult, but quite needed, decision to suspend the signing of an agreement on a free trade zone with the European Union to give some time for the economy to revive and strengthen.”

“We will certainly continue the course for European integration, but sticking to stronger positions and protecting national interests,” Azarov noted.

The prime minister said “the talented Ukrainian nation, united by common values and the policy of reforms for European integration, will take big steps towards its goal next year: to build prosperous Ukraine.