The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has approved the procedure that establishes how pensions and additional payments assigned by court decisions will be paid from the budget of the Pension Fund of Ukraine (PFU).
Ukraine has accumulated a systemic problem with the execution of court decisions on pensions. Over the past five years, the number of such decisions has increased more than 26 times - to 758 thousand decisions. The total amount of debt is currently almost 85 billion UAH. At the same time, until today there was no unified approach by which the state makes payments according to court decisions.
In particular, current payments under court decisions were made immediately, and accrued amounts for past periods were queued. As a result, as of today, the state has paid only under those decisions that entered into force before November 20, 2020, which has caused dissatisfaction among citizens and comments from international partners, in particular, the European Court of Human Rights and the Council of Europe.
To ensure uniform, fair, and understandable rules of conduct for all in conditions of limited financial resources, the Government adopted a resolution establishing a uniform procedure for all payments to enforce court decisions — both retrospective (for past periods) and current ones.
For the first time, the PFU budget will separate expenditures on court decisions, depending on the source of pension financing: payments that should be made at the expense of the state budget, since they concern pensions that are paid specifically at the expense of the state budget, and payments whose source of repayment is insurance pension contributions. At the same time, a unified approach is being introduced to how current payments of pensions transferred to fulfill court decisions and amounts accrued for previous periods (the so-called retrospective court decisions) will be made. Payments to citizens will be made monthly in proportion to the funds determined in the Pension Fund budget, in terms of state budget liabilities and insurance funds.
A separate provision of the resolution provides for the introduction of electronic accounting of all court decisions received for execution by pension authorities. Information about them will be displayed in the person's personal account on the PFU portal, and aggregated data will be published in the format of an open dashboard on the PFU website.
The resolution has already entered into force, and technical preparations for its implementation are currently underway.
It is expected that the adoption of the resolution will contribute to a more transparent implementation of the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights — an international obligation of Ukraine as a member of the Council of Europe.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has adopted a resolution on the procedure for labeling alcoholic beverages, tobacco products, and liquids used in electronic cigarettes. From January 1, 2026, electronic stamps in the form of a DataMatrix graphic code will be used for labeling.
The new code will be applied to each individual pack of tobacco products or bottle of alcoholic beverages, or container with liquid used in electronic cigarettes.
Starting next year, consumers will be able to check the legality of a product through the application, as a method for scanning it can be placed along with the graphic element of the electronic mark.
Testing of the electronic system for the circulation of excisable goods, e-Excise, has been ongoing since March 1, 2025, and will end on January 1, 2026.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has adopted a resolution that streamlines and standardizes the processes of creating and maintaining a number of important registers by customs authorities:
- Unified State Register of Authorized Economic Operators;
- register of guarantors;
- register of enterprises engaged in customs brokerage activities;
- register of enterprises operating a duty-free shop;
- register of enterprises operating customs warehouses;
- register of enterprises operating temporary storage warehouses;
- register of enterprises operating a commercial or service type free customs zone.
These changes were developed by the Ministry of Finance and the State Customs Service to implement the provisions of the Law of Ukraine "On Amendments to the Customs Code of Ukraine in order to implement certain provisions of the EU Customs Code."
Information is entered into these registers by the State Customs Service, as well as in cases established by the Customs Code of Ukraine by customs offices, depending on the type of activity of the enterprise, or automatically using the Unified Automated Information System of Customs Authorities.
These changes are another step towards harmonizing Ukrainian customs legislation with European standards. Information from these registers can be a source for analyzing services, assessing trends, identifying needs, and developing effective strategies for developing foreign trade.
The President of Ukraine signed Law of Ukraine "On Amendments to the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses, the Criminal Code of Ukraine, the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine and other legislative acts of Ukraine regarding increasing liability for corruption or corruption-related offenses" No. 4496-IX of June 17, 2025.
Law No. 4496-IX provides for:
1) and administrative liability for false declaration will arise for submitting false information in the amount of 150–750 subsistence minimums (454,200 - 2,271,000 UAH). Currently, this threshold is set at 100–500 (302,000 – 1,514,000 UAH) subsistence minimums;
2) criminal liability for false declaration will arise for submitting false information under Part 1 of Article 3662 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine in the amount of 750–2,500 subsistence minimums (2,271,000–7,570,000 UAH), under Part 2 – in the amount of more than 2,500 subsistence minimums (7,570,000 UAH);
3) threshold value of the size of assets, the acquisition of which gives grounds for prosecution under Article 368-5 "Illegal Enrichment" of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, has been reduced, namely, 3,000 subsistence minimums (9,084,000 UAH) have been established;
4) list of persons against whom claims for the recovery of unfounded assets can be filed and against whom the article of the Criminal Code of Ukraine on illicit enrichment will apply has been expanded;
5) claims for confiscation and recovery of unfounded assets to the state revenue within the framework of civil confiscation under Article 290 of the Criminal Code will be filed in case of discrepancies between their value and legal income of 750 subsistence minimums (2,271,000 UAH);
6) storage period for information in the Unified State Register of persons who have committed corruption or corruption-related offenses will be:
- 1 year – for information about civil and administrative liability;
- until the person's criminal record is expunged – for information about criminal prosecution;
- 5 years – when applying criminal law measures to legal entities.
The law makes an important clarification that after the expiration of the periods specified above, information about a person in the Unified State Register of Persons Who Committed Corruption or Corruption-Related Offenses is subject to exclusion;
7) amendments to the Law of Ukraine "On Military Duty and Military Service" propose that the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other military formations cannot be staffed by persons accused of committing a serious or especially serious corruption criminal offense and criminal proceedings against whom are at the stage of judicial proceedings.
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has approved in general draft law No. 13157 on amendments to the Tax Code. The document, in particular, provides for:
- return for individual entrepreneurs and independent contractors of the quarterly reporting period for submitting personal income tax reports for employees;
- exemption of sole proprietors and independent contractors from paying social security contributions for themselves if any employer pays the minimum insurance premium, including social assistance to mothers until the child reaches the age of 3 (today, such exemption was granted if the self-employed person had his main place of work as an employee);
- inclusion in the personal income tax deduction of housing rental expenses incurred by a combatant or a person with a disability as a result of the war;
- inclusion of non-resident prisoners of war in the list of persons for whom tax agents (camps, detention centers, and prisons) pay personal income tax;
- extension until January 1, 2028 (today until 2026) of the cash method for the supply and distribution of electricity, water supply and wastewater disposal;
- establishment of a cash method for the payment of rent for oil and condensate production for the period of martial law + 3 months;
- introduction of an export duty on soybeans and rapeseed – 10% until January 1, 2030, then an annual reduction of 1 percentage point to a rate of 5% (exemption of home-grown products);
- establishing a requirement for an average wage of 2 minimum wages for all retail entities selling excisable goods (alcohol, tobacco, fuel).
