Law #4869-IX of April 30, 2026

Who is affected: families of fallen service members, local self-government bodies, the Ministry of Veterans Affairs, and communities on whose territory military memorial cemeteries will be located.

Summary:

  • the law creates a three-tier system of military burials:
    • the National Military Memorial Cemetery as the central site of the entire military burial system;
    • military memorial cemeteries as its regional components in each oblast;
    • military cemeteries and military burial sections at the local level within existing cemeteries;
  • new legal concepts are defined: military cemetery, military memorial cemetery, historical military cemetery, military burial section, honorary burial; the distinction is made between the burial of defenders of the current war, participants in past wars, and fighters for independence in the twentieth century;
  • an exhaustive list of people entitled to burial with military honors at the National Military Memorial Cemetery and its regional branches is established. In particular, this list includes:
    • service members of the defense and security forces;
    • Heroes of Ukraine and recipients of military orders;
    • combatants since 2014;
    • people with disabilities caused by war;
    • peacekeepers;
  • the law removes environmental restrictions on the placement of military memorial cemeteries:
    • within the territories of the Emerald Network — a pan-European network of nature conservation areas created to preserve rare species of flora and fauna and their natural habitats, operating under the Bern Convention, to which Ukraine is a party;
    • within elements of the environmental network, while maintaining the prohibition to use lands of the nature reserve fund, water fund, and residential development areas;
  • the option is introduced of reburial at the National Military Memorial Cemetery of fighters for Ukraine’s independence in the twentieth century and, in exceptional cases, members of their families — by decision of a special commission;
  • the sources of funding for burial are defined: the state budget — for service members, local budgets — for other categories defined by law;
  • an electronic burial register for the National Military Memorial Cemetery and military memorial cemeteries will be launched.

What is right:

The law addresses a real problem that, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, has grown into a systemic crisis. Thousands of fallen defenders have been buried in different cemeteries across the country without unified standards, without guaranteed honors, and without centralized records.

The three-tier system looks practical: it makes it possible to ensure a dignified burial closer to the family’s place of residence, while at the same time creating memorial cemeteries in each oblast with unified standards of commemoration.

Electronic burial registration is an important step toward creating a register of fallen defenders, which will matter both for families and for the systematic recording of losses and honoring of memory in the long term.

The provision on commemorating fighters for independence in the twentieth century places the current war within the broader context of the Ukrainian liberation movement — this is a deliberate symbolic choice.

What is wrong:

The law does not establish national standards on how graves should look like, delegating this matter to local self-government bodies. This may lead to the absence of uniform standards in the appearance of military burials across the country.

Alternative solution:

Unified state standards for how graves appearance and the improvement of military burial sections should be approved at the level of the Cabinet of Ministers, not delegated to local councils. This is a matter of state symbolism and dignity, not the discretion of local self-government bodies.

What happened:

The law is a delayed but necessary attempt to regulate the system of military burials, which since February 2022 had developed spontaneously, without unified standards, without centralized records, and without sufficient guarantees of proper commemoration for the fallen and their families.

The creation of a three-tier system with clear legal definitions and a distribution of responsibilities is the right framework. The actual quality of this system will be determined by the bylaws that the Cabinet of Ministers is obliged to approve within six months, by the sufficiency of funding, and by how consistently the state fulfills the obligations it has assumed.