The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has adopted Resolution No. 957 of 15 July 2026, amending the special procurement procedures approved by Resolution No. 1178, which governs public procurement, and Resolution No. 1275, which governs defence procurement. Most changes took effect on 1 September 2026,). Procurements launched before 1 September 2026 are to be completed under the previous rules.

For defence procurement, the Government has removed the blanket cross-reference that allowed direct contracting in any circumstance listed in paragraph 13 of Resolution No. 1178 and replaced it with a self-standing, closed list of grounds for concluding state contracts outside the electronic procurement system, including:

• cancellation of open tenders due to no tender offers being submitted, provided the subject matter, characteristics, and contract terms match the original tender documentation and the price does not exceed the expected value;

• the customer or its procuring unit being located in a territory of active hostilities not yet concluded at the time of contracting;

• the goods, works, or services being available only from a single supplier due to a documented lack of technical competition, the need to protect intellectual property rights, or a "supplier of last resort" or universal electricity/gas supplier;

• an urgent, documented and unforeseeable necessity that makes it impossible to meet open-tender or electronic-catalogue deadlines, including immediate response to the consequences of emergencies or  Russian aggression, provision of humanitarian aid abroad, replacement of a contractor terminated for breach for the period needed to run a new open tender (up to 20% of the contract value), or procurement pending an appeal against the customer’s decisions in an ongoing tender  (up to 20% of the challenged tender’s expected value);

• the need for an additional volume of goods from the same contractor within three years of the original contract, where switching suppliers would create technical incompatibility, capped at 50% of the contract value;

• the need for additional works or services from the same contractor within three years, on the same 50% cap;

• procurement of legal (advocacy) services. 

These grounds apply to defence goods and services worth UAH 200,000 or more and works worth UAH 1.5 million or more, excluding, inter alia, procurement constituting state secrets and procurement of weapons, military equipment, ammunition and fortifications.

Resolution No. 957 replaces broad direct-contracting discretion in defence procurement with a defined, documented set of exceptions, offering more predictable grounds for bypassing the electronic procurement system  in urgent or combat-related situations.