The court ruled in favor of the company regarding goods stored in occupied Kakhovka

The court ruled that the customs authority’s refusal to extend the company’s period of disposal of goods remaining in its customs warehouse in occupied Kakhovka, Kherson Oblast, was unlawful.

This is stated in the ruling of the Odesa District Administrative Court.

Prior to the occupation, the company “Terryatarsa Ukraine” operated a customs warehouse in Kakhovka at 4 Pivdenna Street. The company’s chemical products—Tape, “Nutriflex,” “Novalon,” and “Speedfol”—were stored at the warehouse under customs control.

Since February 24, 2022, Kakhovka has been under temporary Russian occupation, so the company has physically lost access to its own warehouse.

In April 2025, a law came into effect requiring owners of goods in customs warehouses to either provide a customs guarantee or transfer the goods to another customs regime within three months. The company was subject to this requirement.

Since there is no access to the warehouse in occupied Kakhovka, the company applied to the Ivano-Frankivsk Customs Office requesting an extension of this deadline until the end of martial law. To confirm the force majeure, it provided a certificate from the Kherson Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Customs denied the request, citing that this deadline is not included in the list of deadlines suspended due to martial law.

The court ruled that the Ivano-Frankivsk Customs Office’s actions were unlawful—it denied the company’s request without evaluating the merits of the application in accordance with the applicable procedure.

At the same time, the court did not independently order customs to extend the deadline, as this decision falls within the discretionary authority of the customs agency, and the court cannot substitute its own decision for that of the agency.

Instead, the court ordered the Southern Customs Office—the legal successor to the Kherson Customs Office following the reorganization—to reconsider the company’s application, taking into account the findings set forth in the decision.

The court also ordered the Ivano-Frankivsk Customs Office to pay the company court fees in the amount of 2,422.40 hryvnias.

The decision may be appealed.

Ірина Глухова