By its Resolution No. 91 of January 26, 2024, the Government approved amendments to the Procedure for Providing Financial State Support to Business Entities and extended the validity of preferential lending in the high-risk military zone, solving the problem highlighted by the UAC experts.

As a reminder, on September 22, 2023, a new type of state support was added to the 5-7-9 concessional lending program - concessional lending to enterprises in the high military risk zone.

According to the wording of CMU Resolution No. 28 of January 24, 2020, the "high military risk zone" includes territories where hostilities are currently possible, as well as territories where active hostilities or occupation have ended, provided that less than one calendar year has passed since the end of hostilities/occupation in such territories.

For the de-occupied territories, such a support program actually worked only in October 2023 and in November its operation was almost completed, as the last significant de-occupation of the territories (Kherson region) took place in early November 2022 - that is, more than a year after the de-occupation, Kharkiv, Kherson and other de-occupied regions lost the status of "high military risk zone".

To address this issue, UAC experts, implementing the project "Supporting agricultural MSMEs affected by active hostilities or Russia’s temporary occupation" with the support of the USAID Agriculture Growing Rural Opportunities Activity in Ukraine (AGRO), emphasized the need to amend the definition of a "high war risk zone" to increase the maximum period during which a territory remains in a high war risk zone after de-occupation.

In particular, on December 5, 2023, the relevant proposals of the project experts were supported by the interagency working group on solving the problematic issues of agricultural producers operating in the de-occupied territories, which was formed by the Ministry of Agrarian Policy.

On December 26 of this year, the Government resolved the issue and extended the period during which the territory after de-occupation/completion of active hostilities falls under the definition of a "high military risk zone" from one to three years.

We welcome the Government's adoption of the above amendments and would like to thank the Committee on Agrarian and Land Policy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, the Ministry of Economy and all members of the interagency working group for their constructive position and willingness to hear and solve the problems of agrarian business in the de-occupied territories.

We remind that the UAC, with the support of the USAID Agriculture Growing Rural Opportunities Activity in Ukraine (AGRO), is implementing a joint project to provide legal and other expert support to agricultural producers affected by hostilities or temporary occupation by the Russian Federation.

Thanks to the project, affected agricultural producers will receive individualized advice on land, agrarian, tax legislation, etc. For prompt legal support, please contact the hotline at +38 067 503 19 08.