Critical enterprise status and reservation of employees in Ukraine

Updated: November 2026

During mobilisation, a company can lose engineers, drivers, IT specialists or department heads within weeks. The only lawful way to keep them is reservation, and for most companies reservation is possible only once they are recognised as critical enterprises. Foreign capital makes no difference: the rules are the same for all companies registered in Ukraine. The procedure, however, has become more complex, and the status can now be reviewed and withdrawn.

How it works

Reservation and critical enterprise status are governed by Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 76 (in Ukrainian), which approved the Procedure for reserving persons liable for military service and the Procedure and criteria for identifying critical enterprises, together with the amendments made in 2026.

The process has two stages:

Recognition as a critical enterprise. The decision is made by a ministry, another central executive body or a regional military administration, depending on the sector and region.
Reservation of specific employees from a list submitted after the status is granted.

Reservation applies only to Ukrainian citizens liable for military service. Foreigners are not subject to mobilisation, so foreign employees and directors do not need to be reserved, although they count towards the total headcount.

Criteria

A company is recognised as critical if it meets the general criteria of Resolution No. 76 and the sector or regional criteria of the deciding authority. The general criteria relate, in particular, to the amount of taxes paid, employees’ salary levels and the absence of arrears in the unified social contribution. Sector criteria assess how important the company’s activity is for defence, energy, logistics, food security or other areas.

The status is most often granted to companies in the defence industry, fuel and energy, utilities, processing industry, agriculture, transport and logistics, IT, banking, healthcare and telecommunications. Non-profit organisations can also obtain it, including representative offices of foreign charities.

Reservation quotas

As a general rule, up to 50% of employees liable for military service can be reserved. Higher limits apply in some sectors: up to 95% in energy and the defence industry, and up to 75% in utilities.

The quota can be raised above 50% only through a separate procedure. The employer files a reasoned request with the relevant authority, which forwards it to the Coordination Centre for reservation, and the decision takes the Centre’s recommendation into account. The Centre may refuse to consider the request if the company has had two or more military record-keeping violations in the past 12 months or its manager has been held liable for such violations.

What changed in 2026

Coordination Centre for reservation. Applying to it has become a mandatory step in obtaining critical status. The Centre also approves sector criteria and may recommend withdrawing the status.
Monitoring through registers. The Centre compares the number of employees liable for military service stated in the company’s application and lists with data from the Oberih register and the Pension Fund. Discrepancies are grounds for refusal or an additional request.
Review of criteria. Sector and regional criteria are being reviewed. If the criterion on which a company’s status was based is removed, the status is withdrawn.

For more detail on these changes, see the article by Yana Budova (in Ukrainian).

How to keep the status

The main risk now lies less in the procedure than in data discrepancies. The number of employees liable for military service in the application, in the reservation lists and in state registers must match. Problems most often arise from late-processed dismissals, part-time employees, staff with other deferments and outdated records.

Companies should therefore:

check the criteria on which their status was granted and monitor changes to them;
audit military records and remedy violations before filing new requests;
reconcile HR data with register data;
if the status is withdrawn, immediately analyse the grounds and the procedure: where there are violations, the decision is challenged before an administrative court.

From the firm’s practice

Critical enterprise status for a defence industry company with reservation of 100% of eligible employees.
Critical enterprise status for the representative office of the foreign NGO Conflict and Development Foundation. The decision was made by the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine and allowed the office, which restores critical infrastructure, to reserve its employees.

Our services

assessing compliance with the general and sector criteria;
preparing the application and the case for critical status, and support during review by the ministry and the Coordination Centre;
preparing reservation lists and requests to raise the quota;
auditing and setting up military records at the company;
checking the status against updated criteria;
challenging a refusal or withdrawal of the status before an administrative court.