Ukraine’s Air Services Agreements and Air Law Conventions

Reference Updated November 1, 2026 Author: Anna Tsirat Download PDF

Whether an airline may fly between Ukraine and a given state, how many frequencies it may operate and through which points is settled not by the Air Code but by the intergovernmental air services agreement with that state: it grants the traffic rights, sets the designation procedure and caps the frequencies. Once Ukrainian airspace reopens, these agreements will be the first document that carriers, lessors and insurers check. Above the bilateral layer sit the 2021 EU–Ukraine Common Aviation Area Agreement and the 1944 Chicago Convention with its protocols, while carrier liability to passengers is governed by the 1999 Montreal Convention.

This page collects every intergovernmental air services agreement of Ukraine listed in the State Aviation Service registry, checked against the document records of the Verkhovna Rada, the two agreements with the EU and the multilateral air law conventions in force for Ukraine. For each agreement we give the date of signature, the date of entry into force and its basis (ratification or approval), the traffic regime per the registry and notes on protocols, replacement or termination. Airworthiness agreements, memoranda between aviation authorities and defence-ministry agreements are outside the scope.

Before relying on an agreement

• The airspace has been closed since 24 February 2022. Ukraine has closed all its flight information regions to civil flights; the EASA conflict zone bulletin CZIB-2022-01, issued on 24.02.2022 and extended until 31.01.2027, refers to Ukraine’s NOTAM A0021/26. In our view, the closure and sanctions do not terminate the agreements but prevent their use until the airspace reopens; the agreements with Russia, Belarus, Syria and Iran were terminated separately.
• The State Aviation Service registry lags behind the Verkhovna Rada. The registry lists 70 agreements but omits the 2021 agreement with Iceland (in force since 28.12.2022), the 2021 agreement with Saudi Arabia (ratified 16.11.2022), the new 2018 agreement with Moldova (ratified 15.06.2021), the 2019 Protocol with Qatar and the 2010–2011 protocols with Armenia, Israel and Slovakia. For Montenegro the registry says “no information on entry into force”, whereas the Ministry of Foreign Affairs notice gives 08.12.2015. In our view, dates should be taken from the Verkhovna Rada records and MFA notices, and the registry used for the traffic regime.
• Four agreements have been terminated since 2023. Ukraine terminated the agreements with Syria (from 11.11.2023), Belarus (from 03.01.2024), Russia (from 24.02.2024) and Iran (from 12.12.2025) by Cabinet resolutions; the 1996 agreement with Yugoslavia never entered into force, and the 1997 agreement with North Korea awaits the lifting of UN sanctions. They remain in the table, flagged, so that they are not relied on.
• The 2021 EU agreement is not yet in force but is applied provisionally. The Common Aviation Area Agreement was signed on 12.10.2021 and ratified by Law No. 2067-IX; under Art. 38 it enters into force after ratification by all EU member states, and until then the Parties apply it provisionally from the first day of the month following the last note confirming completion of internal procedures. According to the EUR-Lex summary (updated 27.09.2022) the Agreement has been applied provisionally since 12.10.2021, pending completion of national procedures; the Council approved provisional application by Decision (EU) 2021/1897. That date is the signing date, whereas Art. 38(3) ties the start of provisional application to the first day of the month after the last note; Ukraine’s note is not on the Verkhovna Rada site. Presidential Decree No. 978/2025 set up a delegation to the Joint Committee operating under the Agreement. It does not cancel the bilateral agreements with EU states but aligns them with EU law; the 2005 EU–Ukraine agreement on certain aspects of air services remains in force since 13.10.2006.
• Older agreements have been replaced. With Georgia the 2010 agreement applies (the 1993 one lapsed on 11.11.2011), with Poland the 2013 agreement (the 1994 one lapsed on 28.07.2016), with the United Kingdom the 2011 agreement (the 1993 one lapsed on 17.07.2015), with the United States the fully liberalised 2015 Air Transport Agreement (the 2000 agreement terminated on 14.01.2016, Art. 18), and with Cyprus the 2012 agreement (the 2000 one lapsed on 07.09.2016); the State Aviation Service registry still shows both old agreements in force. The Verkhovna Rada records show the old texts as “no longer in force” with a reference to the new agreement.
• Not every record has an entry-into-force date. For the 1990s agreements with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Mongolia, China, India and Moldova the Verkhovna Rada records give no date; the registry treats the date of signature as the date of entry into force. For Kuwait, Thailand and Libya the date appears only in the registry. Such cells are marked “per registry”.
• Carrier liability follows the 1999 Montreal Convention (in force for Ukraine since 06.05.2009). The official text on the Verkhovna Rada site carries the original 1999 limits. Following ICAO’s fourth review under Art. 24, from 28.12.2024 the limits are 151,880 SDR per passenger for death or bodily injury (first tier), 6,303 SDR for passenger delay, 1,519 SDR for baggage and 26 SDR per kilogram of cargo (ICAO). With states that are not parties to the Montreal Convention the “Warsaw system” applies: per the ICAO list Ukraine is a party to the 1929 Warsaw Convention (since 12.11.1959), the 1955 Hague Protocol (since 01.08.1963) and the 1961 Guadalajara Convention (since 14.01.1984), but not to the 1975 Montreal Protocols; there are no Ukrainian texts of these instruments on the Verkhovna Rada site.
• The Cape Town Convention and Aircraft Protocol have applied to Ukraine since 01.11.2012 with creditor-friendly declarations (Alternative A of Art. XI, 60 days; IDERA; entry point — the State Aviation Service). Details are in our reference page on private international law conventions.

Bilateral air services agreements

The list and the traffic regime follow the State Aviation Service registry (70 entries), supplemented by acts published by the Verkhovna Rada; dates of signature and entry into force are taken from the document records where available, otherwise from the registry. Agreements terminated or never in force are flagged. Entries: 74, of which 66 in force. Frequencies, points and the number of carriers in the regime column come from the State Aviation Service registry; the treaty texts published by the Verkhovna Rada usually do not contain them and refer to arrangements between the aviation authorities. No regime is given for terminated agreements.

• Bilateral agreements (74)
• Agreements with the EU (2)
• Multilateral conventions (10)
• What is missing

Agreements with the European Union

Multilateral air law conventions

Dates are taken from the Verkhovna Rada records and the ratification or accession laws; ICAO is the depositary of most instruments; deposit and entry-into-force dates are checked against the ICAO status document for Ukraine, and differences from the Verkhovna Rada records are shown in the cells.

What is missing or unconfirmed

Ukraine is not a party

• International Air Transport Agreement 1944 (“five freedoms”) (ICAO) — status
• Montreal Additional Protocols Nos. 1–3 and Protocol No. 4 of 1975 to the Warsaw Convention, Guatemala City Protocol 1971 (ICAO) — status
• Beijing Convention and Protocol 2010, Montreal Protocol 2014 to the Tokyo Convention — not signed (ICAO) — status
• Rome Convention 1952 on surface damage (its 1978 Montreal Protocol only signed on 23.09.1978), Geneva Convention 1948 on rights in aircraft, 2009 Montreal conventions on compensation to third parties (ICAO) — status

Ratified but not in force

• 2016 Protocols to the Chicago Convention (Arts. 50(a) and 56) — ratified by Ukraine (Law No. 1547-IX) but not yet in force (ICAO) — status

No text on the Verkhovna Rada site

• Warsaw Convention 1929 with the Hague Protocol 1955 and the Guadalajara Convention 1961, Tokyo Convention 1963 — in force for Ukraine (participation of the Ukrainian SSR continued by Ukraine; ICAO), dates in the multilateral table
• Bilateral agreements in force per the State Aviation Service registry: Bulgaria (1994), Hong Kong (2002), Indonesia (1996), Canada (1999), Cuba (1995), North Macedonia (1998), Norway (2001), Slovenia (1999); entry-into-force dates in the table — status
• No text and not in force: the agreements with Cyprus 2000 and the USA 2000 were replaced by the 2012 and 2015 agreements (from 07.09.2016 and 14.01.2016), and those with North Korea 1997 and Yugoslavia 1996 never entered into force

How we can help

We advise airlines, lessors, airports and insurers on matters that rest on these agreements: carrier designation and traffic rights, aircraft leasing and repossession, carrier liability, and preparation for the resumption of services. See our Aviation & Asset Finance practice page.

If you know of an agreement or a change that is not yet listed, let us know and we will update the page.

Related materials

• Ready Without Being Active: Why Reopening Ukrainian Airspace Needs a Trigger-Based Architecture
• Montreal Convention in Ukraine: Carrier Liability After the 2024 Limits Revision
• Cape Town Opinions from Ukraine: What the Opinion Confirms — and Where It Honestly Stops
• Ukraine’s Aviation Reopening: Building Digital Trust and Insurance-Ready Infrastructure
• Reference: Ukraine’s Private International Law Conventions
• Reference: Ukraine’s Treaties on Legal Assistance and Recognition of Judgments

This page is not legal advice. Information as of October 31, 2026; sources are the State Aviation Service registry of air services agreements, the document records and texts published by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs notices of entry into force the ICAO lists of parties and the ICAO document “Status of Ukraine with regard to international air law instruments”.