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Part-time employees will no longer qualify. Workers will only be allowed to receive deferment through one employer.
Economy Minister Oleksii Soboliev confirmed that the Cabinet of Ministers has changed the rules for reserving employees at critical infrastructure enterprises in order to balance defense needs with stable economic activity in the rear.
The government outlined several key changes:
- to retain critical infrastructure status and qualify for employee deferments, a company must pay an average salary of at least 25,941 hryvnias — equal to no less than three minimum wages;
- for businesses operating in frontline regions, the requirement has been eased to 2.5 minimum wages;
- employees who already have deferments or work part-time may only be reserved through one place of employment.
According to the ministry, the changes are intended to prevent companies from artificially inflating the number of employees eligible for deferment and to ensure quotas better reflect real business needs for key specialists.
The government also introduced new criteria for determining whether a company qualifies as critical infrastructure. Ministries, central executive bodies, and regional military administrations must revise and reapprove their criteria within a month in coordination with the Defense Ministry and Economy Ministry. Existing company statuses and current deferments will remain valid during the transition period.
Earlier in May, ruling party lawmaker Ruslan Horbenko claimed there was an unofficial directive to reduce the number of critical enterprises in Ukraine by 10–20%. At the same time, experts argue that more workers should be eligible for deferment to keep the economy functioning, noting that only 1.2 million out of 10 million officially employed Ukrainians are currently reserved from mobilization.
