Customs Rules Updated from 27 October 2026: Supporting Businesses amid Wartime Risks

Customs simplifications and AEO status: revised approach to assessing financial standing and the right to obtain or retain authorizations where property is damaged or destroyed as a result of hostilities

The revised approach to assessing compliance with the financial standing criterion allows businesses applying for authorizations to use customs simplifications – namely a reduced general guarantee securing customs payments (to 50% or 30%) or a guarantee waiver – or businesses that already hold such authorizations, to obtain or retain them if their property has been damaged or destroyed as a result of hostilities, shelling or similar events, and this has caused their financial standing to fall below the required level.

To do so, a business must submit the following to the customs authority:

1. documentary evidence of the event that caused the property to be damaged or destroyed (for example, an extract from the Unified Register of Pre-Trial Investigations or a fire report drawn up by an authorized officer of the State Emergency Service);

2. copies of the inventory report and the report documenting the write-off of property following the inventory; and

3. a two-year financial plan with quarterly forecasts showing that the required financial standing class is expected to be achieved within that period. Businesses should keep these documents together with calculations explaining how the property losses have affected their financial indicators.

Important condition: in the year preceding the year in which the property was damaged or destroyed (but no earlier than the third calendar year before the year in which the application is submitted), the business’s financial indicator must have met the minimum level required for the relevant authorization.

It has also been established that businesses which already hold and use authorizations for the above customs simplifications will undergo a reassessment of their financial capacity in the first and second quarters of 2027, based on their annual financial statements for 2026.

Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) status: if a business already has AEO status and its financial standing has fallen below the required level because its property was damaged or destroyed as a result of hostilities, it may nevertheless retain its AEO status. To do so, the business must submit the same documents listed above, except for the two-year financial plan.
For such businesses, compliance with the relevant financial standing requirements will be monitored on the basis of the first annual financial statements submitted after the end of the 17th month following the termination or cancellation of martial law.

The rules for taking negative net assets into account have been clarified: the absence of negative net assets will be checked based on the latest financial statements available on the date the assessment report is prepared, rather than on financial statements for the previous three years and the current year. Negative net assets in any of the previous three years will indicate a higher level of risk during monitoring, but will no longer be grounds for refusal.

Businesses whose authorizations have been suspended but not revoked, or which are undergoing reassessment, may submit updated documents and information with taking into consideration the changes introduced by Resolution No. 1327. The State Customs Service will assess the measures taken and decide on the future status of the authorization.

Shorter timeframes for coordinating customs control procedures

Until martial law is terminated or cancelled, where it is necessary to agree on the time for an inspection of goods, additional identification or marking, sampling, fumigation or disinfection, the relevant procedures will be coordinated through the “single window” mechanism between the declarant, the State Production and Consumer Service, and the customs authority. The time will be set for the earliest available slot, but no later than one working hour after the time proposed by the declarant. This is expected to reduce the time goods spend in customs control zones.

Non-food products: temporary suspension of controls under sectoral plans

Government control of non-food products will be temporarily suspended until the market supervisory authorities update their sectoral market supervisory plans. Controls under the updated sectoral plans will begin 10 days after the date on which information that the relevant authority has approved amendments to the relevant sectoral plan is published on the official website of the State Customs Service.

Implementation of the exemption from customs duties and import VAT for certain components imported into Ukraine for defense production

A mechanism has been introduced to make it possible in practice to implement the recent amendments to the Tax Code and the Customs Code, which extend the exemptions from import duty and VAT to the import into Ukraine by businesses of components (materials, units, assemblies, equipment and component parts) specified in Section 8 of Article 287 of the Customs Code, for use in their own production of defense products, regardless of the source of funding, including funding provided by foreign partners. This applies provided that the final recipient is Ukraine’s security and defense forces and the products are transferred to that recipient free of charge:

The documents confirming that the goods meet the conditions for exempted import have been listed. Details of these documents must be stated in the customs declaration to substantiate the right to the exemption (an end-user certificate or contract, technical passport, and a statement that the goods will be used exclusively in the business’s own production);

At the request of the customs authority, the declarant must provide the originals or duly certified copies of these documents;

No certificate confirming that the goods have been recorded in the accounts and no report on their intended use need to be submitted;

At the request of the customs authorities, information in any form on the intended use of the goods must be provided within 10 working days;

If the goods are not used for their intended purpose, the unpaid customs payments, together with late-payment interest, may be recovered.

Other changes

• If video surveillance systems at customs warehouses, temporary storage warehouses, duty-free shops or in free customs zones cease to operate as a result of hostilities, terrorist attacks or acts of sabotage, the requirements governing their operation will temporarily not apply. The operators of these facilities must notify the customs authority of this.

• Where goods are stored in customs warehouses or temporary storage warehouses, the warehouse operators will receive, from the customs declarations relating to the relevant goods, information on the release of those goods so that they can maintain their own records.

What businesses should do

1. Businesses with damaged assets should collect supporting documents, assess the impact of the losses on their financial indicators, prepare calculations explaining that impact and, where necessary, draw up a financial plan;

2. Importers of non-food products should monitor updates to the sectoral plans and the date on which government control resumes;

3. Importers of defense components should check whether the exemption applies, ensure that the required documents are in place, and be ready to provide information on the intended use of the goods within the prescribed time limit.