Twenty Years of a Farmland Sale Ban: Ten Laws That Extended the Deadline

In Ukraine, most farmland could not be sold until July 1, 2021. The ban began in 2001 as a “temporary” measure, and was extended by law each time it was due to expire, lasting about 20 years. In Ukraine this has been called the “land moratorium” (zemelnyi moratorii).

Why did the ban begin, how was it extended, and what brought it to an end? This article traces the story from the land reforms of the 1990s to the 2018 ruling of the European Court of Human Rights and the law of 2020, using the text of the legislation and the ruling itself.

The 1990s: “Shares” Distributed to Farmers

In Soviet Ukraine, all land belonged to the state. According to the background set out in the European Court of Human Rights’ ruling, the Land Code of December 18, 1990, allowed local councils to transfer land to individuals. Presidential Decree No. 720/95 of August 8, 1995, established a system for dividing the land of collective farms (“collective agricultural enterprises,” the renamed kolkhozes) among current and former farm workers and people such as those working at rural schools and hospitals, in the form of “shares” (zemelna chastka (pai), or pai) of unspecified location and area. Presidential Decree No. 1529/99 of December 3, 1999, required collective agricultural enterprises to be dissolved by April 2000 and their land shares and property divided up.

According to Verkhovna Rada Resolution No. 882-IV of May 22, 2003, 6.87 million citizens had received share certificates, and by March 1, 2003, 3.17 million (47.2%) had exchanged their certificates for title to an actual plot of land. The difference between oblasts was large: 96% had received plot titles in Kirovohrad Oblast, compared with 13% in Zhytomyr Oblast. The resolution states that 107,000 of the certificates had already been sold or given away.

2001: The Ban Begins

The first ban was Law No. 2242-III of January 18, 2001, “On Transactions for the Alienation of Land Shares (Pai).” It provided that, until the Land Code settled how shares would be treated, the owner of a share could not part with it through sale, gift, or otherwise. Inheritance and compulsory purchase for state or public needs were exceptions.

The new Land Code (No. 2768-III) was enacted on October 25 of the same year and took effect on January 1, 2002. Transitional Provision 15 provided that citizens and legal entities holding land for farming or commercial agricultural production, and citizens holding shares, could not sell their land or shares, or otherwise part with them, until January 1, 2005. Exchange, inheritance, and expropriation for public needs were exceptions.

Timeline: Rewriting the Deadline

As the 2005 deadline approached, the Verkhovna Rada rewrote Transitional Provision 15 to extend the deadline. The same thing was repeated after that.

How Many Times Was It Extended, Counted?

The number of extensions depends on what is counted. The amendment notes to Provision 15 of the Land Code list 15 laws, including the 2020 No. 552-IX. Of these, the 10 laws from 2004 to 2018 moved the ban’s end date (excluding the invalidated 2008 budget law). The rest made changes other than to the deadline: voiding transactions (February 2006), changing the use of land given to investors under production-sharing agreements (No. 5406-VI of October 2012), and the treatment of publicly owned land (No. 2498-VIII of July 2018), among others.

From the “Land Market Law” to the “Law on the Circulation of Agricultural Land”

The name of the law the provisions named as the condition for lifting the ban also changed. The 2006 amendment referred to a law “On the Land Market,” and from the November 2012 amendment onward, a law “On the Circulation of Agricultural Land.” According to the ruling, the Verkhovna Rada passed a bill “On the Land Market” at first reading on December 9, 2011, but deliberation appears not to have progressed after that, and proposals to rename the law had come up during deliberation. The word “moratorium” does not appear in the provisions cited here. The provisions are worded as “may not be sold or otherwise parted with” or “is not permitted,” and the ruling describes this ban as “generally referred to in Ukraine as the land moratorium.”

2018: The European Court of Human Rights Ruling

The ruling that found this ban contrary to the protection of property rights under the European Convention on Human Rights (Article 1 of Protocol No. 1) was the European Court of Human Rights’ judgment of May 22, 2018, in Zelenchuk and Tsytsyura v. Ukraine (Applications nos. 846/16 and 1075/16). The seven judges of the Fourth Section decided unanimously, and the judgment became final on August 22, 2018.

The two applicants were born in 1947 and 1939. Both had inherited land shares received by their mothers, and were leasing to a company the agricultural plots they received (2.5917 hectares in Rivne region, 3.41 hectares in Ternopil region). They complained that the ban prevented them from selling their land, in breach of their property rights.

The Government argued that the ban was intended to prevent the concentration of land in the hands of wealthy individuals or hostile forces, to prevent land from being abandoned, to prevent rural people from losing their land and becoming impoverished, and to protect the security of the state and of food, and also countered that the applicants had inherited the land knowing of the restriction. The judgment accepted that the domestic authorities’ judgment that the moratorium served those goals could not be said to be “manifestly without reasonable foundation” (paragraph 108), but pointed out that the laws of December 2007 and June 2008 had removed a concrete end date, making the ban effectively indefinite, without giving a reason for doing so (paragraphs 117 and 119). It also stated that the uncertainty created by the repeated extensions of the moratorium had in itself contributed to the burden on the owners, and that their ownership rights had been rendered, in practical terms, precarious and defeasible (paragraph 146).

The Court concludes that the applicants have been made to bear as individuals the burden of the authorities’ failure to meet their self-imposed goals and deadlines. (…) the Court considers that the burden imposed on the applicants is excessive.

European Court of Human Rights, judgment in Zelenchuk and Tsytsyura v. Ukraine, paragraph 147 (HUDOC, English original)

Finding the problem to lie in the state of the legislation itself, the judgment required Ukraine to take general measures, such as legislation, striking a fair balance between the interests of agricultural landowners and society as a whole (paragraph 150). It stated, however, that the manner of striking that balance was for the state to choose, adding that “this judgment should not be understood to mean that an unrestricted market in agricultural land has to be introduced in Ukraine immediately.” It held that the finding of a violation was sufficient compensation for non-pecuniary damage, and ordered Ukraine to pay each applicant €3,000 for costs and expenses.

According to the judgment, shortly before this, on February 14, 2018, Ukraine’s Constitutional Court had rejected, without examining the merits, a petition by 55 members of parliament seeking to have the extension of the ban declared unconstitutional, on the grounds that the reasoning given was insufficient.

The 2020 Law and the 2021 Opening

On March 31, 2020, the Verkhovna Rada passed Law No. 552-IX, “On Amending Certain Legislative Acts Concerning the Conditions for the Circulation of Agricultural Land.” The law took effect on July 1, 2021, and from that date citizens could buy up to 100 hectares of farmland each. From January 1, 2024, Ukrainian legal entities whose capital is held only by Ukrainian citizens, the state, and local communities have also been able to buy up to 10,000 hectares.

As of September 2026, foreign nationals and legal entities with foreign shareholders still cannot buy farmland. Article 130 of the Land Code states that a legal entity with foreign shareholders or ultimate beneficiaries may buy farmland only from the date approved by referendum. The Law on the All-Ukrainian Referendum (2021, No. 1135-IX), however, prohibits both calling and holding a referendum during martial law under Article 20. Martial law was extended by 90 days from August 2, 2026, under a presidential decree of July 13, 2026. What remains suspended under martial law is covered in our article on martial law.

Transactions Since the Opening

According to the March 4, 2026 announcement of the State Service of Ukraine for Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre (Derzhheokadastr), 334,803 farmland sale contracts were concluded between July 1, 2021, and March 3, 2026, covering a combined 1.001 million hectares. The agency states that this amounts to 5.8% of the land formerly subject to the ban, and that most of it is still leased out. The average price per hectare, as of early 2026, was 64,631 hryvnias (converted by the agency to $1,501), which it says is a 96% rise in hryvnia terms over this period. All these figures are from the agency’s own announcement, not a third-party tally.

The harvest and planted area of the main crops grown on Ukraine’s farmland are covered in our article on the harvest of the three major crops.