Support for business in frontline territories, the resilience of communities on the eve of winter, and legislative initiatives important for entrepreneurs were the main topics of the “Front City: Special Conditions for Business Development in Frontline Territories” conference.

The event was attended by parliamentarians, government officials, representatives of the Ukrainian Business Council, frontline communities, and the expert community.

During the conference, the draft law on state support for business in frontline territories during active hostilities—”Front City”—was presented. This is an important and extremely relevant initiative because it establishes a fundamentally new approach: territories operating under constant military threat require separate rules and special instruments of state support.

It is expected that the “Front City” special legal regime will be in effect during martial law and for three years after its termination.

Among the proposed support instruments are tax preferences, preferential lending, war risk insurance, assistance in restoration and demining, employment support, as well as consulting and informational support for enterprises.

Uniform rules for different conditions are unfair

The Fuel and Energy Business Association consistently emphasizes: doing business in a frontline territory cannot be compared to the operation of an enterprise in a relatively safe region.

An entrepreneur working under constant shelling risks losing property, goods, equipment, employees, and their own life every day. They face power outages, complicated logistics, population outflow, staff shortages, market contraction, and practically inaccessible insurance.

Applying the same tax, credit, and regulatory requirements to such a business as to enterprises operating hundreds of kilometers from the front line means ignoring the real conditions of its activity.

Frontline territories need not general declarations of support, but a separate comprehensive regime: tax benefits, affordable financing, war risk insurance, loss compensation, simplified regulatory procedures, and special recovery programs.

Such support is not a privilege. It is a necessary condition for preserving entrepreneurship, jobs, budget revenues, and the very viability of communities.

Fuel supply requires separate solutions

This issue is particularly acute regarding fuel infrastructure.

Fuel in frontline communities is not just a commodity. It is the viability of the territory, the mobility of emergency services, the operation of municipal and special equipment, medical institutions, generators, enterprises, and humanitarian logistics. It is also the possibility of evacuating the population in the event of a worsening security situation.

That is why the issue of safe and uninterrupted fuel supply for frontline territories must be resolved urgently.

The state must offer legal and safe options for the operation of fuel infrastructure under conditions of increased military threat. At the same time, local self-government bodies and military administrations, together with local business and current licensed operators, should be given the opportunity to choose among the solutions provided by legislation the format that best suits the security situation and the real needs of a specific community.

After all, it is on the ground that people best understand where infrastructure is destroyed, which settlements have been left without access to fuel, which routes are safer, and which technical solutions can be implemented the fastest.

People and entrepreneurs who remain in frontline territories and support their livelihoods should not have to independently seek a way out of legal uncertainty at their own peril and risk. They must receive clear, legal, and safe operating mechanisms from the state.

From support today to the return of life to communities

The “Front City” initiative is important not only as a response to the current challenges of the war.

The problems of frontline territories will not end simultaneously with the termination of martial law. These regions will need the restoration of infrastructure, housing, enterprises, transport links, social facilities, and life-support systems for a long time.

During the years of war, many people moved to other regions with their families. Some entrepreneurs relocated production facilities, formed new teams, and established operations in other regions or abroad.

To make people and business return, it is not enough just to call them home. It is necessary to create conditions under which such a return will be safe, economically justified, and promising.

People must see the opportunity to work, run a business, raise children, and plan for the future. Entrepreneurs must understand that they will gain access to financing, insurance protection, clear rules, and real incentives for restoration and development.

The return of business means the return of jobs, taxes, services, and economic activity. Employees and their families return behind enterprises, demand is restored, and stores, establishments, service enterprises, and transport routes open.

Therefore, “Front City” should become not only a temporary anti-crisis mechanism, but the basis of a long-term state policy for the recovery of frontline regions.

Rebuilding buildings is not enough. It is necessary to rebuild the economy, the viability of communities, people’s trust, and life itself in these territories.

Read more about the conference and the presented initiative in the material by the Ukrainian Business Council.

The project “Special Economic Regime for Frontline Territories of Ukraine as an Instrument of Economic Resilience and SME Resilience During the War” is implemented on the initiative of the National Business Coalition of SMEs with the support of the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE). Administrative and organizational coordination of the project is provided by the Business Association “4BUSINESS”.