Thousands of people will be able to receive assistance: how the law for Ukrainian critical infrastructure workers was changed

This was reported in a comment to Sotsportal by Vitaly Dudin, a lawyer for the NGO "Social Movement", who first wrote about the problem with the implementation of this law two years ago. The changes will make it possible to award compensation to the victims even if the affected enterprise is not on the Register of Critical Infrastructure Facilities. Previously, they had to prove in courts that a tank factory, power plant, or hospital is indeed a critical infrastructure facility.

On 25 February 2026, the Parliament adopted in the first reading and as a whole the Draft Law on Amendments to the Law of Ukraine "On lump-sum monetary assistance for harm to life and health caused to workers of critical infrastructure facilities, civil servants, local government officials as a result of military aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine" No. 14303. This is about eliminating the shortcomings of Law No. 2980-ІХ, adopted in 2023, which were revealed during its application.

We have ensured the fulfilment of those guarantees that the state has already given, said on Facebook the initiator of the bill Pavlo Frolov.

Article 2 provided for the following amounts of lump-sum monetary benefits for harm to life and health: from 200 to 800 thousand hryvnias - for persons with disabilities; 1 million hryvnias - for the family of the deceased victim.

Employees of critical infrastructure facilities, civil servants, and local government officials, as well as their family members (in case of death), were eligible for the payment. But according to the Pension Fund of Ukraine, as of 1 January 2026, its territorial bodies rejected more than 60% of applications submitted under Law No. 2980-IX.

The most frequent problems arose when applying for assistance to persons whose place of work did not receive the status of a critical infrastructure facility. Applications were rejected on this basis in 221 out of 283 (or 78 per cent) of cases. Due to uncoordinated work on the formation of the Register of Critical Infrastructure Objects, people suffered. Almost 60 citizens appealed the rejections in the courts, with no guarantees that court decisions would be enforced. The voted changes give hope for justice to thousands of families of railway workers, power engineers and other civilian war heroes, although they were adopted with a significant delay, says Vitaly Dudin.

Part 1 of Article 1 of Law No. 2980-ІХ was set out in a new wording, expanding the circle of those who are covered by the Law. The right to the appointment and payment will have persons who were injured in connection with the performance of duties, from among:

1. employees of critical infrastructure operators, their branches, and representative offices;
2. persons injured at critical infrastructure facilities,
3. state employees and local government officials.

A legal entity managing a critical infrastructure facility may be recognised as a critical infrastructure operator. An example is JSC "Ukrzaliznytsia" as the only legal entity conducting activities covered by the list of critical infrastructure sectors. Employees of any separate subdivision should be considered employees of the operator. Even if the specific location where the accident occurred is not included in the Register of Critical Infrastructure, the lawyer says.

At the same time, according to him, a logical step after the law comes into force will be for the government to amend the procedure for assigning payments in order to stipulate how the FIU authorities will determine the status of a critical infrastructure operator. At the same time, there is a lack of clarity as to which "persons who suffered at critical infrastructure facilities" will also be able to apply for the payment: whether they are contractors under civil agreements or not.

The law also removes the restriction on the time limit for applying for payment during martial law. This will allow all those who suffered damage after 24 February 2022 to benefit from Act No. 2980-IX. Thanks to this, the payment will also be available to guide Anatoliy Babichev, who received the award "National Legend of Ukraine" from the President for the evacuation of children from Donbas. His wife Natalia Babicheva died in 2022 from shelling while working as a conductor on the same evacuation train. In early 2025, Anatoly learnt that due to the death of his wife, he was entitled to UAH 1 million. But the Main Department of the Pension Fund of Ukraine in Kyiv refused the man, referring to the fact that the terms had expired. According to Article 3 of Law No. 2980, the application should have been filed within three years. Now, after the change in the law, Anatoliy will probably be able to receive the payment.