Ukraine overhauls conscription deferral rules: criteria review in 10 days and a new coordination centre

What the government decided

On 26 October Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers published resolution No. 1328 of 23 October 2026 on organising the reservation (deferral from mobilisation) of employees liable for military service during mobilisation and wartime. The document amends the existing procedure set out in resolution No. 76 of 27 January 2023. According to the accounting outlet DTKT, the resolution takes effect on the day of its official publication.

Criteria review within 10 days

Ministries, other central authorities and regional (military) administrations have ten days to review and agree the sectoral and regional criteria under which companies are recognised as critical for the economy, for the population’s needs or for the needs of the Armed Forces, Ukrinform reports.

They will then check whether companies already designated as critical meet the updated criteria. If the criterion under which a company was deemed important for an industry or a community is removed, the decision on its critical status will be cancelled.

At the same time, UNN reports, all other existing criticality decisions remain valid for the period for which they were granted. The Ministry of Economy stresses that reviewing criteria is a standard procedure and does not mean an automatic review of every company’s status; most firms whose criteria do not change will keep their status.

A Coordination Centre

The resolution creates a Coordination Centre for organising reservations, a temporary advisory body of the Cabinet. It will include representatives of the authorities responsible for the economy, defence, security, humanitarian policy and critical infrastructure. The Centre will approve the updated criteria.

According to UNN, every criticality decision will now go through a recommendation from the Centre: the relevant authority considers an application within 7 working days, the Centre within one month, and the decision is then taken within 3 working days. The Centre will also approve increases in reservation quotas above 50%.

Transitional provisions

The resolution also states that decisions by the defence minister to increase reservation quotas taken before resolution No. 1608 of 8 December 2025 took effect remain valid for the duration of a company’s critical status, but no later than 8 December 2026. Until now, the Ministry of Economy recalls, quota increases were approved by an interagency working group led by the defence minister, while sectoral and regional criteria were set by authorities in agreement with the defence and economy ministries.

Caps: up to 95% for defence and energy

The government revised the caps for companies in the fuel-and-energy and defence-industrial sectors to up to 95% of employees liable for service. Critical personnel, those directly ensuring production, defence contracts and operational, repair and emergency restoration work, must be fully reserved. Managers decide whom to reserve within the cap, so any reduction will mainly affect support and service staff.

MP Yaroslav Zhelezniak, quoted by DTKT, noted that compared with the earlier draft the document became softer: heat and water utilities keep a 75% quota, and existing statuses and caps remain until they expire. However, he called a closed list of 13 sectors (education, science, services and media only via the Centre) and a limit of 7 people per project for donor programmes “traps”.

What companies should do

The government recommends that companies seeking critical status submit their documents to the relevant authorities early. Those that already have it should check which criterion it was granted under and follow the updated sectoral and regional criteria.