The use and distribution of russian software products and information technologies in Ukraine will be prohibited by a separate law

July 2025

The war between Ukraine and russia continues not only on the battlefield, but also in the information space. The aggressor country keeps launching destructive cyberattacks against government institutions, defense enterprises and commercial organizations. At the same time, a significant part of state and private companies still use software of russian origin, exposing themselves to serious security, reputational and financial risks.

That’s why, on July 18, 2025, bill No. 13505 «On the Prohibition of the Use and Distribution of Hostile Software Products and Hostile Information Technologies» was registered in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.

The purpose of the bill is «determined by the need to establish legislative regulation of the possibility of introducing a ban on the use and distribution of software products and information technologies, the use of which may pose a threat to the national security of Ukraine», the explanatory note states.

According to the document, software products may be recognized as hostile if they meet at least one of the following criteria:

• the ultimate beneficial owner of the business entity distributing the software is: a citizen of the aggressor state and/or the occupying state, or states that are part of customs and military alliances with such states, or states to which sanctions have been applied and/or to which personal economic and other restrictive measures (sanctions) have been applied;
• the author of the computer program who holds the proprietary rights to the computer program is a citizen of the aggressor state and/or the occupying state, or states that are part of customs and military alliances with such states, or states to which sanctions have been applied and/or to which personal economic and other restrictive measures (sanctions) have been applied;
• the software is included in the publicly available list of software and communication (network) equipment prohibited for use, maintained in accordance with the requirements of the Law of Ukraine «On the Basic Principles of Ensuring Cybersecurity of Ukraine»;
• the owner of the website is a citizen of the aggressor state and/or the occupying state, or states that are part of customs and military alliances with such states, or states to which sanctions have been applied, or a citizen of Ukraine registered in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, and/or to which personal economic and other restrictive measures (sanctions) have been applied;
• the owner of the web page is a citizen of the aggressor state and/or the occupying state, or states that are part of customs and military alliances with such states, or states to which sanctions have been applied, or a citizen of Ukraine registered in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, and/or to which personal economic and other restrictive measures (sanctions) have been applied;
• the proprietary copyrights to such a software product belong to a legal entity whose ultimate beneficial owner is any of the persons specified in paragraph 2 of this article;
• the owner of such a website is a legal entity whose ultimate beneficial owner is any of the persons specified in paragraph 4 of this article.

After the adoption of the bill, the sale, use and distribution of software products and information technologies that meet the criteria of being hostile will be prohibited in Ukraine. In case of violation of this prohibition, business entities will be subject to financial sanctions in the form of a fine amounting to 2% of their total annual turnover.

The main provisions of the bill will come into force 6 months after its publication, while the sanctions block will take effect on January 1, 2030.

For the period until January 1, 2030:

• local governments, military formations, state enterprises, institutions and organizations, owners and operators of critical infrastructure must take immediate measures to migrate from hostile software products and information technologies;
• the sale (distribution) of software products and/or information technologies to the above-mentioned organizations/companies is permitted only for those software products and/or information technologies that are not listed in the registers of hostile software products and information technologies;
• Individuals, legal entities and other business entities must take immediate measures to migrate from software products and information technologies that fall under the criteria of being hostile.

What does this mean for business?

The law provides a gradual migration to secure domestic or international software: all prohibited software products must be withdrawn from use by January 1, 2030.

In view of the above, we, as a consulting company with over 20 years of experience in implementing ERP and CRM systems, appeal to the owners and executives of Ukrainian enterprises that are still using software products of russian origin such as 1C/BAS not to wait for an official ban or another large-scale cyberattack.

Don’t put it off until the last day! Migrate to secure and modern ERP and CRM solutions from the most reliable information technologies provider in the world – Microsoft. To choose the right system and calculate the cost of a migration project specifically for your company, contact us by phone +38 044 490 22 20 (UA) or +1(302)4672024 (US), or email at info@innoware.com.