The legal regime of a temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine does not depend on a decision by an authorised state body recognizing such territory as temporarily occupied - SC CommCC Joint Chamber

The legal status of the temporarily occupied territory does not depend on the decision of a public authority to recognise the territory as occupied. A decision of a competent state authority is not constitutive but merely informative in nature, confirming the specific date on which the actual occupation began or ended. The prohibition on conducting economic activity in a temporarily occupied territory applies from the moment of the actual occupation, which is a generally known fact and does not require separate proof.

This conclusion was made by the Supreme Court composed of judges of the Joint Chamber of the Commercial Cassation Court.

A limited liability company filed a lawsuit against a hospital to recover the principal debt for electricity consumed in November - December 2022 under a supply contract. The claim was based on the defendant’s improper performance of contractual obligations regarding payment for the consumed electricity.

The court of first instance upheld the claim. The appellate court reversed the decision of the court of first instance and dismissed the claim because it was impossible to reliably establish the fact of electricity supply to the temporarily occupied territory, and because of the absence of proper and admissible evidence confirming such supply.

The case was referred to the SC CommCC Joint Chamber due to the need to depart from the conclusion of the Supreme Court set out in the ruling of 7 March 2024 in case No. 910/9680/23, which held that, for the application of Part 2 of Article 13 and Part 2 of Article 13-1 of the Law of Ukraine “On Ensuring the Rights and Freedoms of Citizens and the Legal Regime on the Temporarily Occupied Territory of Ukraine”, it is sufficient that the Law applies to the disputed legal relations pursuant to Article 2 of the Law (in the absence of a separate decision of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine regarding temporarily occupied territories since 24 February 2022).

The Joint Chamber noted that, under both international legal norms and Ukrainian legislation, a territory is recognised as occupied by virtue of existing factual circumstances; the law cannot change this fact but establishes the legal status of a temporarily occupied territory and the legal regime applicable to it.

According to the regulations introduced by the Law of Ukraine No. 2217-IX of 21 April 2022 “On Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine concerning the Regulation of the Legal Regime of the Temporarily Occupied Territory of Ukraine”, the legal status of a territory temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation does not depend on whether any authorised Ukrainian state body has adopted a decision recognising a particular part of Ukraine’s territory as temporarily occupied. Such a decision by a competent state authority of Ukraine (including the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine) has an informative rather than constitutive nature for temporarily occupied territories, publicly and reliably confirming the specific date from which the actual occupation of a particular part of Ukraine’s territory began or ended.

The Joint Chamber held that the conclusion set out in the Supreme Court resolution of 7 March 2024 in case No. 910/9680/23 is well-founded, and there are no grounds to depart from it.

As a result of the case review, the cassation appeal of the LLC was dismissed, and the ruling of the appellate court was upheld.

Resolution of the Joint Chamber of the Commercial Cassation Court within the Supreme Court of 3 October 2025 in case No. 908/1162/23 – https://reyestr.court.gov.ua/Review/130792991.

This and other legal positions of the Supreme Court can be found in the Database of Legal Positions of the Supreme Court - https://lpd.court.gov.ua.