Ukraine

UAS Regulations

The State Aviation Service of Ukraine has a drone 'landing page' in Ukrainian and English: https://avia.gov.ua/unmanned-aircraft/
listing the following titles with links to documents:

• Current legal regulations governing the use of airspace by unmanned aerial vehicles
• Procedure for the use of airspace by unmanned aerial vehicles
• Liability for violation of the order of use of airspace

and the procedures provided are:

According to the requirements of paragraph 4 of Section II of the Rules for usage of the Ukrainian airspace, flights of unmanned aircraft with mass below 20 kg inclusive may be performed without submission of applications for the airspace usage, obtaining permits for airspace usage and informing the appropriate units of Air Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and Integrated Civil-Military ATM System (ICMS), units of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, units of civil and military Air Traffic Service (ATS), subject to compliance with the following requirements:
1) flights are performed without crossing of the state border of Ukraine;

2) flights are performed outside of the is established prohibitions and restrictions of airspace usage, with the exception of the cases established by the Regulations for usage of the Ukrainian airspace;

3) flights are performed neither closer than 5 km from the external boundaries of runways of aerodromes, nor closer than 3 km from the external boundaries of the runway of small aerodromes (with MTOM of aircraft below 5700 kg) / heliports, except in cases agreed with the operator of aerodrome / heliports;

4) flights are performed not closer than 500 meters from manned aircraft;

5) flights are not performed over:
the assemblies of people at open air and tight city construction;
the objects (zones) that defined by the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine, the National Police of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine, the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine, the Department of the State Guard of Ukraine, other military formations and law-enforcement structures formed in accordance with the laws of Ukraine and in respect of which protection / state protection is carried out (subject to the indication of the territory surrounding these objects with information signs of prohibition unmanned aircraft flight and / or by announcing the limits of such a ban), except for flights performed under the permission of the above-mentioned authorities;

6) flights are performed within the visual line of sight (VLOS);

7) maximum flight altitude:
120 meters above terrestrial (water) surface outside the CTR, AFIZ, ATCA, ATCZ, specially designated zones and routes, other specially reserved portions of airspace;
50 meters above terrestrial (water) surface within the limits of CTR, AFIZ, ATCA, ATCZ, specially designated zones, other reserved portions of airspace, if there is no information on the actual status of elements of the airspace structure where flight is planned;
50 meters above static obstacles at a horizontal distance of not more than 100 meters from obstacles such as a deviation from the above mentioned height limitations, at the request of the owner of such object;
8) the operating speed of unmanned aircraft is not more than 160 km / h;

In other cases, unmanned aircraft weighing below 20 kg inclusive and all operations of unmanned aircraft weighing more than 20 kg without exception, are performed within specially defined zones and routes complying with the requirements for submitting applications for airspace usage, obtaining permits and condition of airspace usage, informing the appropriate units of Air Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the units of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, the ICMS units, the ATS units.

[LATEST UPDATE: 23 April 2021, David Guerin]


The information below has not been checked recently and may be out of date:

As of November 2016, there are no dedicated regulations for operating: drones/unmanned-aircraft/Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS). This is also the case for Remote Piloted Aircraft (RPA) certification and crew licencing the areas. However, larger drones must be registered and probably treated as conventional aircraft.
 

Ukraine is a signatory to the ICAO Convention on International Aviation, and these standards require that basic rules of the air be followed, inasmuch as RPAS must not endanger civil aircraft.

It is reported that permission from the State Aerial Department must be obtained before using RPA for aerial photography. Such flights must also be coordinated with the General Headquarters of the Armed Forces [Reference: Olena Yatsunska-Poff, Foreign Law Consultant, April 2016].

The Air Code of Ukraine includes RPAS as aircraft in relation to aviation events (occurrences not air shows) and serious incidents. The expectation is certainly that the pilot shall report events and incidents to the authorities [Reference: http://zakon3.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/3393-17 ]. The Ukrainian State Air Traffic Services Enterprise (UkSTATSE) website supports this notion stating that RPA: ‘as defined by the Air Code of Ukraine should be considered as aircraft, flights of which are to be strictly regulated’. UkSTATSE also states that: “… the unmanned flights are performed only in the airspace specifically reserved for this according to requests from users”. [Note: these are unofficial translations from the original language text to English].

Ukraine Aviation Regulations, Part 47 "Rules of registration of civil aircraft in Ukraine" Section 2.15, in the State Register of Civil Aircraft of Ukraine requires that all RPA must be registered except:

… untethered unmanned balloons without a payload, and

…unmanned aircraft, maximum takeoff weight not exceeding 20 kg and are used for entertainment and sports activities. [Note: this is an unofficial translation from the original language text to English].

However, no registry could be found.

Governance:

One website suggests that RPAS governance is the subject of the respective federations. However, there is more than one federation in Ukraine. [reference: http://www.50northspatial.org/drony-ta-ukrayinske-zakonodavstvo/ ].

Licencing/training:

A remote vehicle pilot training program was started in Ukraine in August 2014.

Prosecution

It is reported that: “Operators of UAVs are subject to the same liability rules as other air traffic operators may be held criminally liable under the Criminal Code of Ukraine for creating a danger to human life or causing other conditions that threaten the safety of air flights.” [Reference: Olena Yatsunska-Poff, Foreign Law Consultant, April 2016].

Future expectations:

The Ukrainian State Air Traffic Services Enterprises conducted a workshop/s with Eurocontrol in May 2015 to analyse the current state of regulations and for the “… development of foremost recommendations for enhancement of the national legislative base taking into the consideration the European best practices”. [Note: this is an unofficial translation from the original language text to English]. Ukraine is a European Civil Aviation Conference ECAC Member State through the State Aviation Administration of Ukraine and this opens the possibility that Ukraine will follow the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) ‘Prototype’ Commission Regulation on Unmanned Aircraft Operations (August 22, 2016: https://www.easa.europa.eu/easa-and-you/civil-drones-rpas ) that informs and consults with stakeholders to give indications on the possible direction that EASA will take on implementation of regulations, after appropriate consultation.