The Ukrainian legislation underwent significant transformations as of the last week of October 2025, covering almost all of the most important aspects, from family relations to commercial operations and the judiciary. Such changes reflect an all-embracing legal reform aimed at upgrading the regulatory framework of Ukraine, being guided by European standards and modern needs of the society. Please find in this summary a brief description of key innovative provisions and their possible practical impact on parties to civil, commercial, and family relations, as well as findings of preliminary legal analysis conducted by legal experts, together with expert opinions on such legislative amendments.
Recodifying the Civil Code as a Step to Harmonizing the Private Law
The third week of October 2025 started with a quite important event in the legal system of Ukraine – the Verkhovna Rada supported as a basis Draft Law No. 14056 on updating (recodifying) Book One of the Civil Code of Ukraine. This step signifies a new stage of the legal reform intended to rethink utterly the fundamental principles of private law. The draft law is expected to serve as a new wording of the General Provisions section and elaborate in more detail the provisions describing the general principles and sources of private law, subjects and objects of private relations, agreements, transactions, representation, and statutes of limitations.
The initial purpose of this draft is not merely to upgrade outdated rules but to approximate the civil legislation to the digital era. The draft law proposes new mechanisms to protect personal rights of individuals in the digital environment, sets out rules to address risks of artificial intelligence, clarifies mechanisms to safeguard personal, biometric and genetic data, and implements the right to be forgotten. Such approach expands certain personal rights vested in legal entities, enabling other parties to private relations to exercise them.
As attorney at law Illia Shaposhnikov explains based on his own experience, the update of the Civil Code will systemically affect, in a practical sense, the execution of agreements, definition of legal personality of legal entities, protection of rights in courts and fair distribution of risks upon fulfilling obligations. All business entities will have to adjust their strategies and internal procedures by taking guidance from the new regulations, especially, with respect to digital identification and personal data protection.
Transforming the Public-Private Partnership: Strengthened Investment Mechanisms
Law No. 4510-IX on Public-Private Partnership has officially taken legal effect. This law replaces the public-public partnership legislation and introduces revolutionary approaches to attracting private capital in public infrastructure projects. The document takes full effect from 31 October 2025 and is part of the European integration initiatives.
The new law reduces bureaucratic procedures for preparing and implementing PPP projects, provides for more flexible mechanisms for cooperation between the government and the business community, and enables entering into agreements relating to construction or restoration projects that will be implemented once the hostilities are over. It expands a list of public partners encompassing both governmental and municipal enterprises who are authorized to initiate and implement PPP projects on their own behalf. Defense, housing construction, health care, and education sectors are added to the domain in which PPP projects may be implemented. As part of such projects, ownership rights may be assigned to private partners. A hybrid financing mechanism, operational availability payments, and an electronic platform for project implementation turn PPP into an effective tool to attract investments.
In practice, having introduced a new PPP mechanism, private investors and companies are actually afforded an opportunity to attract state-owned assets to commercialize and upgrade their operations. For businesses, this means they can expand their markets and stick to new opportunities to procure long-term cash flows; for the government, this is about an opportunity to raise additional UAH 8-10 billion in the economy annually by implementing five projects of UAH 50-100 million each per region in average
, comments Serhii Kunenko, attorney at law at Alva Privacy.
Family Law: Lifting Divorce Restrictions and Protecting Child Rights
The transformation of the Family Code rules relating to the right to divorce has recently become one of the most controversial and socially significant changes. The law of Ukraine of 20 November 2024 officially lifted the restriction from divorcing a pregnant wife and within a year after the child birth. This novelty reinforces the principle of voluntary marriage and is consistent with the modern understanding of family relationship.
The legislator has recognized that divorcing during pregnancy or when the child is under the age of one is essential to families facing domestic violence. Such a divorce is the first step to protecting the mother and the child from physical and psychological violence. Article 112 of the Family Code of Ukraine states that a court rules, based on a claim filed by one of the spouses, that the marriage shall be dissolved if it finds that the further marital cohabitation and preservation of the marriage would be against the best interests of either of the spouses or their children. Now there is a rule that the court may take reconciliation measures with consent from both spouses only.
In addition, there are provisions expanding on establishing the paternity and legal status of children and, specifically, on protecting rights of children affected by military actions, and improving adoption and guardianship procedures. The Supreme Court keeps forming consistent case law regarding disputes over the division of marital property, collection of alimony, and determination of the child's place of residence.
As Tetiana Shaposhnikova, attorney at law, notes, If we analyze these changes we can see that victims of domestic violence will be given more legal guarantees and the child protection becomes paramount with liberalization of divorce rules. Courts, however, have to handle more difficult tasks when it comes to establishing the circumstances proving impartially that the spouses can no longer live together as a couple without significant harm
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Judiciary and Administration of Justice: Procedural Innovations and Unity of Judicial Practice
Throughout October 2025, the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court of Ukraine kept working to unify the legal positions developed by joint chambers of cassation courts and the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court. To be more specific, the Administrative Court of Cassation initiated on 26 October 2025 a program for new interpretation of procedural rules with the involvement of judges of the Supreme Court, Constitutional Court of Ukraine, and the European Court of Human Rights. This demonstrates that the judicial system has strong intentions to improve the quality of law enforcement and approximate domestic judicial practices to European standards.
The High Council of Justice scheduled its meeting for 27 October 2025 to consider the staffing of courts and monitoring of their activities. The Supreme Court has published in recent months a number of case law reviews in disputes involving public service, procurements, protection of rights during martial law and compensation for damage caused by the war.
The Constitutional Court of Ukraine is still examining the constitutional petitions regarding the constitutionality of certain provisions of Article 212(1)(10) of the Family Code of Ukraine and the petition from the Supreme Court regarding the constitutionality of Article 233 (1) of the Labor Code of Ukraine. Such proceedings signify that there is an ongoing dialogue between judicial institutions on how to improve the rules that govern social relations, including family issues and employment.
This means that the judicial practice so strengthened and legal positions so unified will contribute to the increased predictability of court decisions and protection of rights of the parties to legal proceedings
, lawyer Sofiia Ohiievych notes based on her analysis. As far as parties to legal proceedings are concerned, this also about an opportunity to predict better the outcome of their claims, relying on the methodology and legal opinions issued by the courts
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Commercial Law: Transition Period after Repealing the Commercial Code
Although the repeal of the Commercial Code of Ukraine officially took place on 28 August 2025, its echoes and practical consequences still shape the way in which the commercial legislation developed in October and November. Law No. 4196-IX, which introduces a three-year transition period until 28 August 2028, sets forth specific rules applicable to legal entities registered before the effective date. A significant part of the Commercial Code provisions either duplicated the rules of the Civil Code and special laws or is no longer of any relevance.
As the Commercial Code becomes ineffective, the Civil Code of Ukraine and special laws will exclusively govern legal relations from now on. The Ministry of Justice of Ukraine emphasizes that, although the operational and economic sanctions have disappeared from the code as a concept, the parties may still apply them on a contractual basis, being guided by the Civil Code (specifically, Articles 611, 615, 627, 628). Commercial contracts made before 28 August 2025 are not nullified automatically and continue to operate in accordance with their terms and conditions.
Andrii Pisotskyi, an associate at Alva Privacy, clarifies that the transition period gives time for business entities to adjust their contracts, internal procedures, and management policies to the new fundamental principle of regulation framework set out exclusively in the Civil Code and special legislation. It is important to revise existing contractual arrangements and, whenever possible, apply these civil legislation "novelties" and implement innovative solutions facilitating the establishment (documentation) and fulfillment of contractual obligations.
Tax and Social Changes since 1 October 2025
Law of Ukraine No. 4536-IX, which took effect from 1 October 2025, makes significant changes in the Tax Code and a number of other laws. The law has introduced new requirements to the average minimum monthly wage or total monthly taxable income for business entities engaged in retailing alcoholic beverages, tobacco products, e-cigarette liquids, and fuel.
It expanded the exemption from the single social contribution for individual entrepreneurs and other self-employed persons. In addition, the law sets forth new deadlines to give notice of employment and dismissal, changes methodology for calculating basic social care benefits, and introduces new rules for card to card transfers. With effect from 1 October, 10-kopiyka coins are withdrawn from circulation, border crossing rules are changed, and new reporting forms are introduced for business entities.
The State Labor Service is now entitled to inspect employers to verify that workplaces are free from mobbing (harassment). The National Bank updated certain requirements setting forth the specifics with respect to its regulatory acts applicable to the non-banking financial service market during martial law.
Practical aspects: The aforementioned tax and social changes require certain employers and entrepreneurs to update immediately their payroll, reporting, and financial planning policies. In view that the State Labor Service now has extended authorities to monitor mobbing risks, companies must focus more attention on its corporate culture and implement mechanisms protecting against harassment at work.
Summary
The legal transformations that took place during the period from late summer to autumn and, specifically, in October 2025, intensify the trend to upgrade all areas of regulation in Ukraine. Recodifying the Civil Code, introducing a new mechanism of public-private partnership, liberalizing family law rules, and improving judicial proceedings are coordinated steps aimed at strengthening the protection of rights of all parties to public relations.
Having summarized these new legislative provisions, Alva Privacy legal experts strongly recommend all individuals, businesses, and government institutions to rethink actively their legal strategies and adjust their operations to the changing environment to stay within the legal framework. Timely adjustments to these rules will allow minimizing risks and maximizing the use of new opportunities now afforded to parties to commercial, civil, and family relations.
