The Cabinet of Ministers has adopted a resolution changing the way customs operates.
This was reported by the Ministry of Finance.
The changes are intended to support businesses affected by shelling, speed up customs control and simplify imports for the defence sector.
In particular, when assessing companies’ financial standing, the consequences of Russian attacks will be taken into account. If a company has lost property or warehouses due to shelling but previously met the requirements for a reduction in, or exemption from, paying a customs guarantee, it will be able to retain the relevant status or that of an Authorised Economic Operator (AEO). To do so, the business must confirm the cause-and-effect link between the deterioration in its condition and the enemy’s actions and submit a plan to restore financial indicators within two years, the Ministry of Finance explained.
Other financial easings include:
- negative net assets will be assessed only at the time of inspection, rather than over the past three years;
- resilience monitoring for affected AEOs will be postponed until the end of the seventeenth month after martial law is lifted;
- companies whose authorisation has been suspended will be able to submit new documents in line with the new rules, and a repeat assessment for those with guarantee benefits will be carried out for the first time in the first or second quarters of 2027, based on the results for 2026.
In addition, the government has reduced the time for approving official control procedures from eight hours to one working hour. Inspection, labelling, disinfection or sampling of goods will be agreed via the “single window” system between customs, the declarant and the State Service of Ukraine on Food Safety and Consumer Protection within the shortest possible time, reducing cargo downtime.
In addition, customs officers are temporarily suspending state control of non-food products until sectoral market surveillance plans are updated. The new plans will be drawn up on the basis of analysis of international alert systems for risky products and instances of market bans over the past two years.
Another innovation: the new government resolution introduces a mechanism for exemption from VAT and import duty for materials, units and components imported into Ukraine to manufacture weapons using funds from foreign partners.
The government has also temporarily lifted the requirement for mandatory operation of video surveillance at customs warehouses if the equipment has been damaged due to hostilities or sabotage by the Russian Federation. At the same time, owners of temporary storage warehouses will receive data from customs declarations on the release of goods in order to keep accurate records.