Amidst ongoing mobilization, the issue of maintaining exemption status for employees of critical enterprises remains one of the most pressing. Recent clarifications by lawyers shed light on how the mechanism for annulling draft protection works and what deadlines apply for updating data in the system.

Automatic Removal of Exemption

Nikolai Sirenko, a lawyer at the law firm "Prykhodko & Partners," commenting for RBC-Ukraine, reported on the strict protocol following an employee's termination. According to him, mobilization exemption is automatically annulled within one day after the employee is fired and the corresponding information is entered into the Pension Fund of Ukraine.

This process does not require additional applications from the terminated individual or the employer — the system reacts to the change in employment status instantly once the data is submitted to state registries.

Exhaustive List of Grounds

There is a clear and closed list of reasons for which exemption can be revoked. It is defined in Item 31 of the Government Order No. 76. These grounds include:

  • Termination of the employee from the enterprise;
  • The enterprise losing its status as critically important;
  • Liquidation of the company;
  • A request from the management to remove the exemption.

It is important to note that an internal transfer of an employee to another position or department within the same company is not grounds for cancelling the exemption. In such cases, documents do not need to be re-filed — protection is preserved automatically.

Replacing an Employee: Technical Nuances

If it is necessary to urgently exempt another specialist in place of a fired person, employers should consider the technical specifics of the system. The unblocking procedure itself takes about 15 minutes, however, updating personnel data in the "Diia" app can take up to two days.

As long as the old employee is listed in the system as having exemption, it is impossible to exempt a new employee under the same quota. This creates a temporary window that must be accounted for when planning personnel changes.

New Criteria and Validity Periods

Against the backdrop of these changes, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has updated the criteria for granting critical status to enterprises. Now, decisions on the criticality of most enterprises will be valid for no longer than September 1, 2026. This means that businesses will have to regularly review their positions and confirm compliance with new requirements.

Such measures are aimed at ensuring the flexibility of the system and avoiding abuses where companies try to maintain exemption for employees who are no longer actually working at critical facilities.