New Prozorro Rules from September 1: The Cabinet Expanded Grounds for Procurement Without Tenders and Restored the Negotiation Procedure

The Cabinet of Ministers adopted Resolution No. 957 dated July 15, 2026, which significantly updated the rules for conducting public and defense procurements during martial law. The document amends two key government resolutions at once – No. 1178, which regulates the specifics of public procurement, and No. 1275 concerning defense procurement. In fact, the government did not limit itself to minor edits. A significant part of the provisions of Resolution No. 1178 is presented in a new edition, and some procurement mechanisms have been fundamentally changed.

Most innovations will come into force on September 1, 2026. The changes will affect customers, participants, and public monitoring. Most of them will facilitate a gradual transition to the new edition of the Law "On Public Procurement", which will take effect in spring 2027.

A new direct contract mechanism appears

One of the main innovations was the introduction of a new paragraph 9² of the Special Provisions. It allows certain customers until the end of 2026 to conclude contracts without conducting open tenders and without using the electronic catalog, if the procurement concerns state-defined critically important areas. This primarily concerns equipment for energy infrastructure, including: gas piston units, cogeneration units, gas turbines, diesel generators, transformers, boiler houses, heat pumps, components for such equipment.

The simplified procedure will also apply to works and services necessary for the construction, reconstruction, restoration, placement, or major repair of such facilities.

Separately, the possibility of procurement without competitive procedures is provided for engineering protection of critical infrastructure within state programs.

At the same time, control is strengthened

Despite the simplification of certain procedures, the government simultaneously introduces additional requirements regarding transparency. Customers will be required to: publish justification for the use of direct procurement, publish a report on the concluded contract, post information about the ultimate beneficial owners of the supplier, and in certain cases – upload documents regarding the cost of material resources in machine-readable format.

For certain contracts, the information will not become public immediately – the system will automatically publish it only 90 days after the termination or cancellation of martial law.

The government also allowed hiding the exact addresses of customers and suppliers if their disclosure may pose security risks.

Procurement thresholds returned to the Law: what it means for customers

One of the most practical innovations of the resolution was the return of threshold amounts for different categories of customers to the limits provided by the Law "On Public Procurement." After the start of the full-scale war, the rules changed significantly: in 2022, for customers operating in certain sectors, the same thresholds as for ordinary customers were effectively introduced. Because of this, procurement of goods and services starting from 100 thousand hryvnias had to be conducted through competitive procedures.

The new edition of the Special Provisions restores the previous approach and again differentiates various categories of customers. From now on:

• for customers defined in paragraphs 1–3 of part one of article 2 of the Law: goods and services – from 200 thousand UAH, works – from 1.5 million UAH.
• For customers in certain sectors: goods and services – from 1 million UAH; works – from 5 million UAH.

Effectively, the government returns the system to the model enshrined directly in the Law. This means that some lower-value procurements will no longer require competitive procedures, and customers will gain more flexibility in planning expenses.

Procurement of food products through Prozorro Market will no longer be mandatory

Another fundamental change concerns the procurement of food products. Since 2024, customers were effectively obliged to conduct large procurements of most food products exclusively through the electronic catalog Prozorro Market. At the same time, this mechanism was repeatedly criticized by experts because it did not provide the possibility of appealing to the Antimonopoly Committee and full control by the State Audit Service.

Practice also revealed several problems. In particular, some studies found cases of additional requirements imposed on participants and extremely short deadlines for submitting documents, which could create discriminatory conditions for business. Resolution No. 957 cancels the mandatory use of Prozorro Market for food procurement. At the same time, the list of goods for which this requirement applied is excluded from the Special Provisions.

After the changes take effect, customers will independently determine the most appropriate procurement method – whether to use the electronic catalog, conduct open tenders, or apply framework agreements.

The negotiation procedure returns: when it can be applied

The most significant changes affected paragraph 13 of the Special Provisions. Previously, it contained a list of cases when customers could conclude direct contracts without conducting a competitive procedure, but now this paragraph effectively turns into a list of grounds for applying the negotiation procurement procedure.

Overall, the list of grounds has become much more compact, although most of them are already familiar to customers.

If open tenders did not take place. The negotiation procedure can be applied after open tenders were canceled due to the absence of at least one tender proposal.

At the same time, the government retained one of the features of wartime procurements: only one unsuccessful open tender procedure is sufficient. For comparison, the basic Law provides stricter conditions for this.

An additional new requirement is established – in the justification for the negotiation procedure, the customer must indicate the announcement number of the canceled open tender.

If the supplier is the only possible one. Cases where goods or services can be supplied only by one economic entity remain largely unchanged.

This concerns:

• lack of competition for technical reasons
• the need to protect intellectual property rights
• procurement from a "last resort" supplier or a universal service provider.

Urgent need received a clear definition. For the first time, the government explained in detail what will be considered an urgent need. Now it is a documented necessity to conduct procurement due to unforeseen circumstances beyond the control or inaction of the customer, which do not allow compliance with the deadlines for conducting open tenders or using the electronic catalog.

Such situations explicitly include:

• elimination of consequences of emergencies or hostilities
• providing humanitarian aid to other countries
• termination of a contract due to the supplier’s fault
• appealing open tenders.

At the same time, the list is not exhaustive, leaving the possibility to apply the negotiation procedure in other cases with proper justification.

Additional goods, works, and services. Grounds for procuring additional volumes of goods, works, or services from an already determined contractor remain practically unchanged.

However, an important clarification appeared: the main contract for works or services must be concluded as a result of open tenders, and the possibility of performing additional works must be provided for in such a contract.

As before, the cost of additional procurement cannot exceed 50% of the value of the main contract.

New cases were also added. Separate grounds for the negotiation procedure also became:

• procurement of goods within the debtor’s solvency recovery procedure,
• procurement of legal services to protect Ukraine’s interests in international disputes,
• procurements for international exhibition events,
• procurements for the construction of fortification structures and meeting urgent needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, other military formations, law enforcement agencies, and the State Emergency Service,
• procurements for restoration and protection of critical infrastructure objects,
• cases when the customer is located in an active combat zone.

Thus, the former list of exceptions for concluding direct contracts transforms into grounds for applying the negotiation procedure. This approach is much closer to the European model of public procurement and corresponds to Ukraine’s course toward harmonizing legislation with EU norms.

Rules for conducting open tenders are changing

The resolution also revises the deadlines for procurement procedures. Previously, the minimum deadline for submitting tender proposals depended on the procurement subject, but now a unified approach is established. From now on, the minimum deadline for submitting proposals will be 15 calendar days. Accordingly, the deadline for publishing the procurement announcement also changes – it must be posted no later than 15 days before the end of the tender proposal submission period. At the same time, the government removed certain provisions that previously applied and unified the procedure for conducting procurement procedures.

It will also become possible to appeal negotiation procurements

Another fundamental change concerns the appeal mechanism. Previously, the Special Provisions were effectively oriented only toward open tenders, but now the rules also apply to the negotiation procedure.

The resolution provides separate deadlines for submitting complaints after the publication of the notice of intent to conclude a contract based on the negotiation procedure. This means that control over such procurements becomes more formalized.

Control over construction contracts is strengthened

Some innovations concern construction contracts. If the contract price exceeds 10 million hryvnias, the customer will be required to publish: acceptance certificates of completed works, reports on the cost of completed works and expenses. Thus, the government expands the list of documents subject to publication, which should strengthen control over the use of budget funds.

Rules for defense procurements have also been updated

Similar changes were simultaneously made to Resolution No. 1275. For state customers in the defense sector, the list of cases when state contracts can be concluded without competitive procedures has also been expanded. Among the new grounds are:

• absence of participants after open tenders;
• customer’s presence in an active combat zone;
• lack of competition for technical reasons;
• urgent need;
• procurement of additional goods;
• additional works or services;
• procurement of legal services.

What this means

Resolution No. 957 simultaneously expands the opportunities for state customers to promptly procure critically important goods for energy, defense, and infrastructure protection, but at the same time introduces new requirements for information disclosure, documentary justification, and control over the use of budget funds.

That is why this document may become one of the most significant updates to public procurement rules during the entire period of martial law.

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