New Rules for Industrial Parks in Ukraine

The Verkhovna Rada has adopted Law No. 4961-IX, which updates the legal framework for industrial parks in Ukraine. Provisions preserving existing agreements and easing requirements for local planning documentation have applied since 27 September 2026. The principal amendments take effect on 26 December 2026. They remove the 1,000-hectare maximum area limit, allow an initiator to perform the functions of the management company, introduce eco-industrial park status and expand the list of permitted facilities.

The amendments cover land rights, park management, state incentives and operating requirements. In particular, they will amend the Land Code of Ukraine and the Law of Ukraine “On Industrial Parks”. The following sections explain the principal changes and their practical implications for investors and park operators.

This article is intended for Ukrainian and international investors, manufacturing businesses, industrial park initiators, management companies and their legal teams. For new projects, it explains the requirements for park sites, participating businesses and management structures; for existing parks, it outlines which documents, ownership structures and activities should be reviewed in preparation for the new rules.

1. When the new rules take effect

2. Removal of the maximum park area limit

3. Management of the park by its initiator

4. Park facilities and the status of businesses

5. Legal status of eco-industrial parks

6. Land and environmental rules for industrial parks

7. Registration and grounds for exclusion

8. Ownership and foreign participation restrictions

9. Budget funding and state support

10. Tax and customs incentives for participants

11. Checklist for existing industrial parks

Frequently asked questions

How DLF can help

1. When the new rules take effect

Law No. 4961-IX enters into force in two stages. The principal provisions discussed below will take effect on 26 December 2026.

Provisions already in effect

Four groups of provisions have applied since 27 September 2026:

• Agreements with management companies. Agreements between initiators and management companies concerning the establishment and development of industrial parks, concluded before the law took effect, remain valid for the term agreed by the parties.
• Planning documentation. The absence of approved local planning documentation does not prevent the establishment of a park under the conditions described in section 6.
• Separate accounting. State-owned and state-controlled businesses that perform special obligations or exercise special or exclusive rights while also carrying on other activities must keep separate records of their financial and business transactions, subject to the statutory exceptions.
• Alignment of implementing legislation. The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine must align its regulations with the law and ensure corresponding amendments to the regulations of ministries and other central executive authorities. The period allowed is three months from the day after publication.

2. Removal of the maximum park area limit

Current law sets a maximum area of 1,000 hectares for an industrial park. From 26 December 2026, that ceiling will be removed, while the minimum area of 10 hectares remains unchanged.

In addition to engineering and transport infrastructure, field shelterbelts will be permitted between the park’s land plots. The requirement for the plots to be adjacent remains.

Investors planning industrial, logistics and processing projects, including those supporting the reconstruction of Ukraine, will be able to consider industrial park sites above the former area limit.

3. Management of the park by its initiator

Under the current rules, the initiator engages a separate management company. An open competition is required for state or municipal land; for private land, or where the initiator leases the plot, the initiator selects the company independently. From 26 December 2026, the initiator will be able to perform the management company’s functions itself.

An initiator that is a business entity may resolve to perform the management company’s functions itself. It acquires that status and the corresponding rights and obligations on the date of the resolution and must notify the competent state authority within three working days. No separate agreement on the park’s development and operation is required in this case.

Under the new definition, an initiator may be an executive authority, a local self-government body or a legal entity that owns or leases the qualifying land plot. Executive authorities and local self-government bodies remain subject to the open competition procedure.

4. Park facilities and the status of businesses

From 26 December 2026, the law will expand the list of facilities permitted in an industrial park and revise the definitions of a participant and an “other business entity of an industrial park”.

Participants and other business entities

A participant is a business entity registered within the park that has acquired rights to land and/or immovable property there and has concluded a business activity agreement with the management company. In accordance with the park’s development concept, it conducts its activities exclusively within the park in the following fields:

• manufacturing;
• waste treatment, excluding landfill disposal;
• scientific research and scientific and technological (experimental) development;
• energy generation and/or storage, including from alternative sources, as an additional activity solely to support its own activities in the fields listed above.

Other business entities of an industrial park also hold rights to land and/or immovable property within the park and have an agreement with the management company. They operate in fields not prohibited by the Industrial Parks Law and are not entitled to the state incentives provided under that law.

Permitted facilities within an industrial park

The revised list expressly includes catering facilities, hotels, hostels, alternative energy facilities, energy storage installations and water supply facilities. It remains open to other lawful facilities needed for the park’s development and operation. The table explains the possible status of individual operators of these facilities according to their own activities.

An operator’s status depends on the nature of its activities. Logistics companies and battery energy storage system (BESS) operators providing only those services may operate as other business entities of the park, subject to the statutory requirements.

From 26 December 2026, an industrial park’s electricity networks may be classified as a small distribution system without meeting the criterion of a connected capacity of at least 1,000 kW. The other criteria under the Law of Ukraine “On the Electricity Market” remain, including restrictions on distribution to household consumers and electricity transit beyond the park.

5. Legal status of eco-industrial parks

From 26 December 2026, the law will introduce eco-industrial park status for parks that practise industrial symbiosis, implement the best available technologies and management methods, and meet the Cabinet’s criteria and the environmental, economic and social requirements established by legislation.

The management company must implement and operate environmental and energy management systems, take measures to improve resource efficiency and reduce environmental impacts, and establish an information platform for exchanging resources, waste, by-products and products.

The Cabinet of Ministers will determine the criteria, the procedure for obtaining the status and the operating requirements for eco-industrial parks.

A voluntary national standard for eco-industrial parks, developed with support from the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), has applied in Ukraine since 1 September 2025. It provides three levels of compliance.

6. Land and environmental rules for industrial parks

The amendments to the Land Code, the Land Lease Law, the State Land Cadastre Law and the Law on Environmental Impact Assessment cover planning requirements, designated land use, cadastral records, leases, subleases and environmental assessment requirements.

Planning requirements from 27 September 2026

The absence of approved local planning documentation does not prevent the park’s establishment, registration or operation where the law permits the plot’s designated use to be established or changed on the basis of a reasoned opinion from the competent planning and architecture authority. The park’s territory and development, together with the planning conditions and restrictions, are determined in accordance with that opinion.

Industrial park land

The Land Code will include a new category of “industrial park land”. Its designated use may not be changed during the term for which the relevant park was established.

Industrial land plots formed before 26 December 2026 on which industrial parks are located will be designated as industrial park land from that date.

For such plots on which parks included in the Register have been established and are operating, the corresponding designated use will be entered in the State Land Cadastre on the owner’s or land user’s application, without preparing land management documentation.

Leases and subleases

• The period of land use within the park must be at least as long as the term for which the park was established and must be reflected in land lease agreements. The Land Code also expressly prescribes that minimum lease term for state and municipal land.
• An initiator that leases the plot may sublease all or part of it directly to participants and other business entities of the park without the lessor’s prior consent, provided this does not conflict with the lease agreement.
• The lessor of state or municipal land leased without a land auction for the park’s establishment and operation may terminate the lease unilaterally if the park is excluded from the Register and is not included again within one year.

Environmental impact assessment

From 26 December 2026, industrial park development will be removed as a standalone category of planned activities subject to mandatory environmental impact assessment (EIA). Manufacturing and infrastructure projects within a park will still require EIA if they meet other criteria under the Law of Ukraine “On Environmental Impact Assessment”.

7. Registration and grounds for exclusion

The general registration periods remain unchanged: the competent state authority reviews the documents within 21 working days, and inclusion in the Register takes place within 45 working days. Under the new procedure applicable from 26 December 2026, if an application is put on hold to remedy deficiencies, the review period will be extended by that period.

Remedying application deficiencies and grounds for exclusion

If the application or accompanying documents contain deficiencies specified by law, the competent authority will put the application on hold and allow the initiator 15 working days to remedy them. If the deficiencies are remedied within that period, the original filing date will be retained.

The revised grounds for exclusion from the Register include:

• fewer than two participants within three years of the Cabinet’s decision to include the park in the Register;
• no participant carrying on business within the park for three consecutive years;
• the park’s area falling below 10 hectares;
• failure to comply with restrictions on park businesses or the requirements for permitted facilities;
• no management company within two years of the Cabinet’s decision to include the park in the Register, unless the initiator performs those functions itself.

Exclusion from the Register is not a ground for liquidating the park. Its consequences for land leases, including the lessor’s right to terminate a lease unilaterally under specified conditions, are addressed in section 6.

8. Ownership and foreign participation restrictions

From 26 December 2026, the revised rules will bar the following entities, among others, from acting as initiators, management companies, participants or other business entities of an industrial park:

• legal entities incorporated in countries listed by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) as non-cooperative in combating money laundering, and legal entities in which such entities directly or indirectly hold at least 10% of the shares or equity interests;
• legal entities registered in offshore jurisdictions on the Cabinet’s list, and legal entities in which companies from those jurisdictions directly or indirectly hold more than 50% of the shares or equity interests;
• legal entities whose ultimate beneficial owner, or a holder of at least 10% of their share capital, is the Russian Federation, the Republic of Belarus, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, another state recognised by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine as an aggressor or occupying state, or a resident of any of those states.

When companies review their ownership and control structure, they must also consider the rules on related parties, sanctions and economic ties with an aggressor state. An exception to the restriction concerning the specified states and their residents applies to companies whose shares are admitted to trading on foreign stock exchanges on the Cabinet’s list; it does not cover companies that are themselves residents of those states.

9. Budget funding and state support

From 26 December 2026, the Cabinet of Ministers must provide at least UAH 2 billion in each annual draft State Budget for the following year for state incentives supporting industrial park development. The earlier requirement covered the 2022 budget and the following four years; the revised provision sets no such time limit. The State Budget Law determines the final expenditure allocation.

The restriction on state support for small and medium-sized enterprises where letting immovable property is one of their main activities will also be removed for initiators and management companies of parks included in the Register. Participation in the “Affordable Loans 5-7-9%” programme remains subject to its rules and the banks’ eligibility criteria.

10. Tax and customs incentives for participants

Law No. 4961-IX does not amend the Tax Code of Ukraine or the Customs Code of Ukraine. The principal incentives remain available subject to their statutory conditions:

• Corporate income tax exemption for 10 consecutive years on profits from the manufacturing, waste management, material recovery and research activities specified in the Tax Code. The exemption requires an application and compliance with the statutory conditions, including operating exclusively within the park, retaining participant status, and neither accruing nor paying dividends during the relevant period. The tax savings must be used to develop activities within the park by 31 December of the year following the reporting year.
• Exemption from import duty and import VAT for the new equipment and components specified by law and imported by a participant exclusively for its own activities within the park. No more than three years may have elapsed since manufacture, and the goods must not have been used. The designated-use requirements, restrictions on transfer to third parties and other conditions under the Tax and Customs Codes also apply.
• Land tax relief and reduced rent for state or municipal plots, granted by a local council. Subject to the Tax Code’s conditions, these benefits may apply to initiators, management companies and participants of parks included in the Register.

The corporate income tax exemption and import relief are available only to participants meeting the statutory conditions. Other business entities of the park, including providers of logistics, education or standalone BESS services, are not entitled to these incentives.

11. Checklist for existing industrial parks

The law does not require re-registration of existing industrial parks. To prepare for the new rules, the following steps are recommended:

• review the ownership and control structure for compliance with the new restrictions;
• review participant numbers and activities against the grounds for exclusion from the Register;
• review the park’s development concept and agreements for compliance with the new rules;
• decide on the management model and, where needed, prepare the initiator’s resolution and notice to the competent authority;
• from 26 December 2026, arrange for cadastral records to be updated on the owner’s or land user’s application.

Frequently asked questions

When does Law No. 4961-IX take effect?

The provisions on existing agreements, planning documentation, separate accounting for the state sector and alignment of implementing legislation have applied since 27 September 2026. The principal changes concerning area, management, land and legal status take effect on 26 December 2026.

Will industrial parks be able to exceed 1,000 hectares?

Yes. The 1,000-hectare maximum area limit will be removed, while the 10-hectare minimum remains.

Can an initiator perform the management company’s functions itself?

Yes. An initiator that is a legal entity carrying on business may resolve to perform those functions itself. Executive authorities and local self-government bodies must continue to hold an open competition.

Can logistics companies and BESS operators be park participants?

Companies providing only logistics or energy storage services will not qualify as participants but may operate as other business entities of the park. A participant carrying on a permitted principal activity may use BESS to meet its own needs.

When can a park obtain eco-industrial park status?

A park may obtain the status after the relevant provisions take effect and the Cabinet adopts the criteria and procedure for obtaining it. The voluntary national standard does not replace that procedure.

Do participants’ tax and customs incentives change?

No, Law No. 4961-IX does not amend the Tax or Customs Code. Participant incentives remain available subject to the conditions in those codes.

How DLF can help

DLF advises Ukrainian and international investors, manufacturers, initiators and management companies on corporate structures, land and real estate rights, ownership structures and sanctions risks. Our Corporate Law / M&A and Real Estate Law teams prepare agreements and registration documents, assess the conditions for state incentives and support changes to the park’s management arrangements.

Igor Dykunskyy, LL.M. — Partner, Attorney-at-law, DLF attorneys-at-law.

Contacts: +380 44 384 24 54, info@dlf.ua.

This material is intended for general information only. The application of the approaches described depends on the circumstances of the specific situation and requires a separate legal assessment.