A lawyer at Equity Law Firm Bohdan Prachun explained to Interfax-Ukraine the main changes to the reservation rules-particularly regarding the reservation of part-time employees-and how these changes will affect businesses, including the requirement to re-confirm criticality.
He said the amendments to the reservation procedure were introduced in accordance with government Resolution No. 692 of May 30, 2026.
“The new rules not only raise certain requirements for reserving employees but also significantly change the mechanism for determining the reservation quota. In particular, from now on, a single employee subject to military service may be counted toward the reservation quota of only one critically important enterprise, even if he works for several employers,” he said.
Prachun said the government has raised the minimum amount of accrued wages that a reserved employee must receive during the reservation period. The figure has been increased from 2.5 to 3 times the minimum wage, that is, from UAH 21,618 to UAH 25,941.
The new requirement takes effect on September 1, 2026. From that date, the gross salary of a reserved employee (before taxes) must be at least UAH 25,941 per month.
However, as before, this requirement does not apply to all critical enterprises. Specifically, it does not apply to residents of Diia.City, state-owned and municipal enterprises, institutions, and organizations, companies in which more than 50% of the shares or equity interests are owned by the state or are under municipal ownership, and a number of others.
Additionally, the requirement for a new, higher salary level does not apply to critical enterprises that are registered and actually operate in areas of active or potential hostilities.
He also said “if an enterprise plans to resubmit documents to obtain a new criticality status in July, the required average salary level must be met as early as June, since the assessment will be based on the previous calendar month.”
The lawyer added that “one of the most important changes concerns the procedure for determining the quota for conscription deferrals.”
Thus, starting September 1, 2026, employees subject to military service who have a deferment for reasons other than the quota, or who work simultaneously at several critical enterprises, will be counted toward the total number of employees subject to military service for only one employer.
Thus, a single conscripted employee will no longer be able to simultaneously contribute to the quota for multiple critical enterprises. To determine which enterprise’s quota an employee will be counted toward, the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Digital Transformation, and the Pension Fund must implement a new electronic system by August 1, 2026, through which critical enterprises will compile lists of their employees subject to military service.
“An employee will be counted toward the quota of only that critical enterprise that is the first to include him or her in its total number of employees subject to military service,” the lawyer said.
At the same time, an employee does not necessarily have to work at their primary place of employment to be counted toward the quota. They may be counted toward the quota of the enterprise where they work part-time: “The decisive factor will not be the status of the place of employment, but which employer is the first to include them in the total number of their employees subject to military service.”
It is possible to reserve a part-time employee. If the number of reserved employees exceeds the permissible quota, the company’s director is required to submit an application through the Diia portal within ten business days to cancel the “over-quota” reservation.
“In addition, exceeding the reservation quota is now explicitly defined as grounds for revoking the status of a critically important enterprise. In fact, monitoring compliance with the reservation quota becomes one of the key elements of compliance for businesses,” the lawyer said.
He also said that, according to the changes, businesses will have to re-confirm their critical status. Specifically, by June 10, central executive authorities and regional military administrations must review sectoral and regional criticality criteria; by July 1, criticality status will be revoked for enterprises that received it based on a criterion that will be excluded following the aforementioned review; and as of September 1, criticality status will be revoked for all other enterprises.
“After the criteria are updated, businesses will effectively have to re-confirm their compliance with the requirements and submit a new set of documents to obtain criticality status,” the lawyer said.
He also noted that “obtaining Diia.City resident status alone is no longer sufficient to meet one of the criticality criteria.”
To meet this criterion, a company must now simultaneously be a Diia.City resident and ensure an average monthly salary for employees and gig specialists of at least EUR 1,200 over the last six calendar months prior to submitting the application for criticality status.
“Companies will be required to confirm compliance with this requirement through consolidated financial statements submitted to the tax authority. This change significantly complicates the ability of Diia.City resident startups to obtain criticality status, as they were previously able to obtain such status in the early stages of their operations,” the lawyer said.
