UKRAINE Law and Practice Contributed by: Olena Perepelynska, Krystyna Khripkova, Nadiya Mykiyevych and Anna Kozyrieva, IMPACTA LAW
IMPACTA LAW 13th floor, 32/2 Senator Business Center Kniaziv Ostrozkykh St Kyiv 01010 Ukraine Tel: +380 44 391 3853 Email: info@impactalaw.com Web: www.impactalaw.com
1. General 1.1 Prevalence of Arbitration
the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (the New York Convention). Another noticea - ble trend is that parties have started choosing Ukraine as the seat of arbitration – particularly for ad hoc pro - ceedings and for arbitrations conducted under foreign institutional rules. 1.2 Key Industries The increase in arbitration activity in recent years is primarily linked to the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine beginning in February 2022, which has sig - nificantly affected many industries in Ukraine. In the defence sector, the surge reflects the rapid expansion of the industry, which has led to a higher volume of contracts and, consequently, disputes, particularly in procurement, supply chains and manufacturing. The commodities sector, particularly agriculture, has seen an increase in international arbitration activity due to Ukraine’s major role in global grain exports and dis - ruptions to supply chains, shipping routes and port operations caused by Russian aggression. Similarly, the maritime transportation sector has been heavily impacted by Russia’s actions, increasing the number of disputes within the industry. Ukraine has also faced sanctions-related treaty claims brought by foreign investors linked to Russia. These claims relate to challenges posed by Ukraine’s restric - tive measures, asset freezes, nationalisations and related regulatory steps adopted after the full-scale invasion. Claimants tend to qualify Ukraine’s wartime sanctions and emergency actions as expropriation and other treaty breaches.
Prior to May 2026, when the arbitrability criteria were expanded through legislative amendment to the Law of Ukraine “On International Commercial Arbitration” (ICA Law) (see 2.2 Changes to National Law ), dis - putes between domestic parties – unless one of them was a Ukrainian company with foreign investments – could not be referred to international commercial arbitration, with the result that such parties directed their disputes predominantly to the Ukrainian courts or, in significantly fewer cases, to domestic arbitra - tion. It is worth noting, however, that in a November 2023 Judgment the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court of Ukraine clarified that arbitrations involving exclusively Ukrainian parties may also be submitted to a foreign seat. There are no published statistics that allow a definitive comparison between the use of international arbitra - tion and litigation in cross-border commercial disputes involving Ukrainian parties. While tens of thousands of cases are heard annually by commercial courts, it is currently not feasible to determine how many of these involve an international element and could, in prin - ciple, have been referred to international arbitration. That said, international arbitration is well established in Ukraine and widely used. Generally speaking, when contracting with foreign counterparties, Ukrainian parties have consistently preferred international arbi - tration, as it offers a neutral forum, an independent tribunal and the benefit of worldwide enforcement of arbitral awards under the 1958 Convention on
1104 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook