Suing a Ukrainian Company: 20 Questions Foreign Counsel Ask

Can a foreign company sue a Ukrainian company in Ukraine — and actually get paid? The first half has a short answer: yes, on the same procedural footing as a Ukrainian claimant. The second half is decided by choices made before anything is filed: the forum, what your dispute clause really covers, when the assets are frozen, and which route a judgment or award will travel to reach them.

The twenty questions below follow the order in which those choices arise. Each answer is short on purpose; where a question deserves more, the link leads to a full article by JVS Law (Jurvneshservice). The law is stated as at September 2026.

Three decisions come before any claim: which forum, what your clause actually buys, and whether Ukrainian law keeps the dispute for its own courts regardless of what you signed.

1. Can a foreign company sue a Ukrainian company in Ukraine?

Yes. A foreign company litigates in the Ukrainian commercial (economic) courts on the same procedural footing as a Ukrainian one. The hurdles are practical rather than legal: every pleading must be in Ukrainian, foreign-language evidence needs a translation whose translator’s signature is notarised, and corporate documents need an apostille — or consular legalisation, for countries outside the 1961 Hague Convention.

2. Court or arbitration — which should we choose?

If the contract already contains a valid arbitration clause, the choice has been made for you. If you are still drafting, the calculus changed in the autumn of 2023. For thirty years the answer was automatic — arbitrate — because a Ukrainian judgment had nowhere to go, while an arbitral award travelled under the 1958 New York Convention. Since 1 September 2023 the 2019 Hague Judgments Convention gives a Ukrainian court judgment a treaty route into the EU (Denmark excepted), and since 1 July 2025 into the United Kingdom.

That does not make courts better. It makes the choice a real one, to be justified rather than assumed. One thing arbitration buys in Ukraine is rarely said out loud: it takes the merits out of the court queue. It does not remove the enforcement stage — an award still passes through a Ukrainian court before anything is seized. We compare both routes, in figures, in arbitration or court for a contract with a Ukrainian party.

3. Our contract gives exclusive jurisdiction to a foreign court. Are we covered?

For most commercial disputes, yes. The 2005 Hague Choice of Court Convention has bound Ukraine since 1 August 2023, and it obliges the courts of contracting states to respect an exclusive clause.

Not for everything, though. Article 77 of the Law of Ukraine “On Private International Law” (No. 2709-IV of 23 June 2005) keeps certain disputes in Ukrainian courts whatever the parties agreed: immovable property located in Ukraine, the validity of entries in Ukrainian state registers, insolvency of a debtor incorporated under Ukrainian law, the issue or cancellation of securities issued in Ukraine, and several more. The trap is timing. Nothing stops the foreign case — Ukraine will even serve the papers and take evidence for it — and the refusal arrives only at enforcement, under Article 468(2) of the Civil Procedure Code. The full list is in where your choice-of-court clause stops working.

4. Do we have to send a demand letter first?

Only if your contract requires it or a statute prescribes it (Article 19 of the Commercial Procedure Code). There is no general pre-action protocol of the English kind. A short formal demand still earns its keep: it builds the record, and now and then it produces payment.

5. We have an arbitration clause, but the Ukrainian side has sued us in Kyiv. What now?

Object — and object first. A Ukrainian commercial court leaves the claim without consideration on the defendant’s objection, unless it finds the arbitration agreement void, lapsed or incapable of being performed (Article 226(1)(7) of the Commercial Procedure Code; Article 8 of the Law of Ukraine “On International Commercial Arbitration”).

Two details decide the outcome. The court will not raise your clause of its own motion. And the objection must arrive before your first statement on the substance — a statement of defence is already too late, because filing it accepts the court’s jurisdiction. More in challenging arbitration clauses in Ukrainian courts.

The formal side is strict but predictable: Ukrainian throughout, a fee calculated in advance, and a defendant who may ask for security.

6. Which court hears the claim, and in which language?

A commercial (economic) court of first instance — as a general rule, the court at the defendant’s location as recorded in the Unified State Register (Article 27 of the Commercial Procedure Code). The procedure runs entirely in Ukrainian: a claim cannot be filed in English, and contracts, invoices and correspondence in other languages go in with certified translations. Filing is electronic, through the Electronic Court system. If the losing side persists, two more instances follow — the appellate court on fact and law, then the Supreme Court on law alone.

7. Do the courts work during the war — and does anyone have to travel?

They work, and nobody has to travel. Ukrainian commercial courts have operated continuously since February 2022, with remote hearings and electronic filing. Some regions and case types move more slowly; commercial disputes in Kyiv proceed close to normal timetables. A power of attorney covers every stage, hearings included.

8. What does it cost to file?

The court fee for a money claim is a percentage of the amount claimed, within a floor and a cap set by the Law of Ukraine “On Court Fee” (No. 3674-VI of 8 July 2011), and it is paid before filing. For a company it is 1.5 per cent of the claim — between UAH 3,328 and UAH 1,164,800 in 2026 — and 20 per cent less if the claim is filed electronically.

Two points foreign budgets tend to miss. The real cost sits elsewhere — certified translation, notarised powers of attorney, representation. And settlement pays: where the parties settle through mediation, 60 per cent of the court fee comes back (Article 130 of the Commercial Procedure Code; Article 7 of the Law “On Court Fee”).

9. Can the defendant make us post security for costs because we are foreign?

Not because you are foreign. Article 125 of the Commercial Procedure Code — worded identically to Article 135 of the Civil Procedure Code — does not mention nationality at all. On the defendant’s application, never of the court’s own motion, the court may order a deposit to cover the defendant’s likely legal costs in three situations: the claim bears the marks of abuse; the claimant has neither a registered presence in Ukraine nor property here sufficient to cover those costs — both conditions together; or the claimant’s conduct threatens enforcement of a future costs order. If the deposit is not made in time, the claim may be left without consideration.

The 1980 Hague Access to Justice Convention, in force for Ukraine since 1 August 2026, prohibits security demanded solely because a party is foreign. Whether that prohibition reaches the “no presence, no assets” limb is not settled by the text. Read the Ukrainian security-for-costs rule before treating the Convention as a complete answer.

10. What can we claim on top of the principal debt?

Usually three things: the contractual penalty, inflation losses, and 3 per cent per annum on an overdue monetary obligation under Article 625(2) of the Civil Code, unless the contract sets another rate. The arithmetic is where claims lose money — calculation errors are a common reason for partial dismissal.

11. Will the court reduce our contractual penalty?

It may, if the debtor asks and proves its case. Under Article 551(3) of the Civil Code a court — or a tribunal applying Ukrainian law — may reduce a penalty that significantly exceeds the losses, or where other circumstances of material importance justify it. This is a right of the court, not a duty, and it is never exercised of the court’s own motion. There is no cap: the Supreme Court has confirmed reductions of 50, 70 and 90 per cent as within judicial discretion, and its fullest statement of the criteria is the resolution of 16 March 2021 in case No. 922/266/20.

For counsel used to liquidated damages the lesson is uncomfortable. Under Ukrainian law the agreed figure works as a ceiling, not a guarantee. The practice is analysed in how Ukrainian courts reduce contractual penalties.

Where the assets are — and whether they are still there when the judgment arrives — decides more cases than the merits do.

12. Can the debtor’s assets be frozen before we file?

Yes. A Ukrainian court can freeze assets before the claim is filed, together with it, or at any later stage. The application belongs with the claim, not after the first hearing: once the defendant knows, assets move. In urgent matters we prepare it the day instructions arrive.

13. The dispute is in arbitration abroad. Can a Ukrainian court still freeze assets here?

Yes — which was not always so. Since Law No. 2147-VIII of 3 October 2017 rewrote the procedural codes (in force from 15 December 2017), a state court grants interim measures in a case referred to international commercial arbitration, including before the arbitration has been commenced (Article 149(3) of the Civil Procedure Code). The Commercial Procedure Code makes no provision for it, and the Supreme Court has said so directly: the legislator did not provide for such measures in commercial proceedings, while nothing in the civil rules limits who may apply — so the route stays open even where both sides are companies (ruling of 8 August 2019 in case No. 06.08/824/436/2019). The background, and why this was a gap for years, is in interim relief in support of international arbitration.

If the forum is outside Ukraine, Ukrainian law meets the case twice — at service and at recognition — and a mistake at the first defeats the second.

14. How do we serve proceedings on a Ukrainian company?

Through the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, and in no other way. Under the 1965 Hague Service Convention Ukraine objected to every alternative in Article 10: no postal channels, no service through judicial officers. A courier, registered post or a local agent handing over the papers may tell the defendant about your claim. None of it is service, and a Ukrainian court asked to recognise the resulting judgment will say so.

Requests go to the Ministry’s Department of International Legal Assistance, in Ukrainian, English or French. There is no fee. The official average is two to three months — plan on longer. One rule works in your favour: a defendant who refuses the documents, or ignores a proper summons to collect them, is deemed served. The mechanics are in serving proceedings on a Ukrainian defendant.

15. Will a judgment of our home court be enforced in Ukraine?

Usually, yes — by one of two routes. For a judgment from an EU state other than Denmark, or from the United Kingdom, the 2019 Hague Judgments Convention applies where the proceedings were instituted after it took effect between the two states. Otherwise Article 462 of the Civil Procedure Code allows recognition under a treaty or on the basis of reciprocity — and reciprocity is presumed unless the debtor proves the contrary.

Two refusals catch creditors late: a subject matter reserved to Ukrainian courts (question 3), and a judgment presented more than three years after it became final. See the 2019 Hague Judgments Convention in Ukraine.

16. We already hold an arbitral award. How fast can it reach assets in Ukraine?

Months rather than years, if the application is done right. It goes to the Kyiv Court of Appeal wherever the debtor is located (Article 475(3) of the Civil Procedure Code), within three years of the date of the award. The court fee is fixed — 0.5 of the subsistence minimum for able-bodied persons for a company — whatever the amount of the award. The award itself needs no apostille — but the form of the papers around it is where applications die. The court expects a duly authenticated original or a notarised copy of both the award and the arbitration agreement, and a Ukrainian translation whose translator’s signature is notarised. Ukrainian courts read this strictly: the Supreme Court has refused to treat a translation as official where the translator’s signature carried no notarial certification (ruling of 30 January 2020 in case No. 910/14949/18, paragraph 9.17). The same ruling restates the other half of the rule: documents drawn up abroad are admissible only after legalisation in the manner Ukrainian law prescribes (paragraph 9.19) — an apostille for states party to the 1961 Hague Convention, consular legalisation for the rest.

A single judge hears the application within two months of receipt; recognition typically takes two to six months, longer if the debtor resists. File the motion for interim measures together with the application (Article 477(3)). Five days pass before the debtor is notified, and that window decides whether there will be anything left to seize. The full procedure is in recognition and enforcement of arbitral awards in Ukraine.

A judgment remains a document until it meets assets — and until the money can move.

17. How long does it all take?

Plan in instances, not months. First-instance commercial proceedings typically take three to nine months; an appeal adds two to six; the Supreme Court sits above both on points of law. The deadlines in the codes are real, but listing practice sets your dates, and the system is openly planned below capacity: for 2026 the High Council of Justice set 6,880 judicial posts in the local and appellate courts against a stated need of 11,539. The first-instance timetable is where the exercise starts, not where it ends — more on that in what to expect in a Ukrainian court.

18. Can a Ukrainian judgment be enforced against the debtor’s assets in the EU?

Yes, for proceedings instituted from 1 September 2023, under the 2019 Hague Judgments Convention (ratified by Ukraine by Law No. 2342-IX of 1 July 2022). Mind the exclusions in Article 2: carriage of passengers and goods, intellectual property, insolvency, defamation, privacy and competition matters, among others. For a logistics contract this route simply does not exist. Denmark is outside the Convention, so the EU reach is 26 member states.

19. Can the money leave Ukraine once it is recovered?

Within limits. Wartime currency restrictions under NBU Board Resolution No. 18 of 24 February 2022 govern how money leaves Ukraine, and they shape both how debtors hold assets and how recovered funds are repatriated. Paragraph 14 of the resolution prohibits cross-border transfers except for listed operations: there is an express exception for money recovered from the state and state enterprises (subparagraph 47), and one for payments for imported goods, including penalties and damages (subparagraph 2); other claims have to find theirs in the list. The time to deal with them is when the claim is planned, not when the enforcement officer pays out.

20. Can we settle instead — and enforce the settlement?

Yes, if a Ukrainian court approves it. Ukraine signed the Singapore Convention on Mediation on 7 August 2019 and has not ratified it, so a settlement reached outside court is, on its own, a contract — enforceable only by suing on it. Inside a Ukrainian case it is far stronger: the parties may settle “including through mediation” at any stage (Article 46(7) of the Commercial Procedure Code), the court approves the terms by a ruling (Article 192(4)), and that ruling is itself an enforcement document (Article 193(2)). Draft it in sums and dates rather than intentions — the court refuses terms it cannot enforce. See what makes a mediated settlement enforceable in Ukraine.

Seven deadlines decide more recoveries than any argument on the merits. Only one of them runs in the creditor’s favour — the court’s own two months for hearing a recognition application; the rest run against whoever forgets them.

If you are weighing a claim against a Ukrainian company, send us the contract, the dispute-resolution clause and what you know about the debtor’s assets. We will tell you which of these twenty questions decides your case. A partner replies within one business day.

Practice: Commercial Litigation in Ukraine · Cross-Border Debt Recovery from Ukrainian Companies

Written by Anna Tsirat, Doctor of Laws, partner at JVS Law. She has given expert evidence on Ukrainian law in PCA proceedings (The Hague) and writes the Ukrainian national monograph for the International Encyclopaedia for Civil Procedure (Wolters Kluwer).

Published 2 October 2026. Procedural rules are cited to the Commercial and Civil Procedure Codes and the Law “On Court Fee” as in force in September 2026; the Supreme Court rulings of 8 August 2019 in case No. 06.08/824/436/2019 and of 30 January 2020 in case No. 910/14949/18 are quoted from their texts. Court fees, currency restrictions and treaty membership change — verify the current position before acting in a specific matter.