Ukraine Law No. 4473-IX — import duty exemption for optical fiber and fibre-optic cable imported for defence/security needs

Mechanism

Law No. 4473-IX amends the Customs Code of Ukraine to add a duty exemption category for goods imported for security and defence needs. Optical fibre and fibre-optic cable used in drone manufacture/repair fall within this category, alongside other components supplied to the Armed Forces of Ukraine and authorised defence-sector entities. The measure is one of a pair passed the same day — the sibling Law No. 4474-IX (queued separately) grants the equivalent VAT exemption — reflecting the Rada's practice of splitting customs-duty and VAT relief into separate statutory amendments even when they cover the same import category.

This sits alongside Presidential Decree No. 31/2024 ("Made in Ukraine") as part of the wartime legislative architecture lowering input costs for domestic defence-industrial production, in this case specifically the UAV/drone supply chain that has become central to Ukraine's war effort.

Downstream implications

• Lowers landed cost of a key drone-manufacturing input (optical fibre,

used in fibre-optic-guided FPV drones resistant to electronic-warfare jamming), supporting continued scale-up of Ukraine's domestic UAV production base.

• Companion VAT exemption (Law No. 4474-IX) should be filed and cross-

referenced once processed from the queue.

Open questions

• Full list of HS codes/product scope covered by the exemption (official

gazette text not fully parsed from this pass — see primary source for complete coverage).

• Duration/sunset: unclear whether the exemption is tied to martial-law

status and would lapse if martial law ends.