New booking rules may surprise Ukrainians: who will be left out

New booking criteria, possible restrictions, and a review of the status of critically important enterprises — Ukrainian business awaits important decisions

Ukraine is preparing updates to the rules for booking military‑age workers. However, changes may not affect everyone: MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak reported that for most industries the criteria are likely to remain unchanged. At the same time, for certain enterprises new restrictions may be introduced.

Ukraine continues to discuss changes to the mechanism for booking workers from mobilization. One of the key questions remains the definition of enterprises that have the right to grant their employees a deferral from conscription.

As said by MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak, on 7 November the first meeting of the special coordinating center was planned, whose participants were to review the updated booking criteria.

According to preliminary information from the parliamentarian, a wide‑scale review of rules for most industries is not expected.

Who may have booking left unchanged

According to Zheleznyak, for the overwhelming majority of sectors of the economy the booking criteria are to remain as before.

This means that enterprises meeting the current requirements will likely not have to adapt to a fundamentally new system.

Separately, the deputy drew attention to companies whose status as a critically important enterprise expires in November.

According to his information, such a status is planned to be extended automatically.

At the same time, automatic renewal of the enterprise’s status should not be confused with an unconditional continuation of each individual booking.

For whom new restrictions may be introduced

Despite encouraging statements, the government is considering a number of changes that could affect certain categories of enterprises.

In particular, it concerns rethinking the criteria by which companies are recognized as critically important to the economy and to meeting the state’s needs.

In addition, discussion is underway about establishing restrictions on the number of booked workers for certain defense and energy sector enterprises.

Also among possible novelties is an updated procedure for approving booking applications.

Final terms will depend on decisions by the authorized bodies.

Could Ukrainians lose their bookings

The discussion of new criteria in itself does not mean an automatic cancellation of already issued deferrals.

However, for workers of enterprises that will be subject to future restrictions, the booking procedure may change.

Currently it is important to await official approval of the new rules, since the previous proposals are not final decisions.

Yaroslav Zheleznyak expressed hope that the review of the system will not cause serious upheaval for Ukrainian business, but will help enterprises understand the rules they will operate under going forward.

Thus, despite announced changes, mass cancellation of bookings for all workers has not been announced. For most industries conditions may remain unchanged, but the final situation will be determined by government decisions.

As a reminder, in May 2026, StopCor wrote about another potential corruption scheme in the State Labor Service system. According to the investigation, officials of one of the interregional administrations arranged a systemic receipt of funds from enterprises for exams and issuing permits for high‑risk work. Law enforcement reported that monthly participants in the scheme could receive about 700 thousand hryvnias, and one official was detained after handing over 428 thousand hryvnias of improper benefit.