Driver's licenses in Ukraine are planned to be issued differently: what will change for prospective drivers

Driver's licenses, exams and "Diia": the reform promises safety, but motorists will have to closely watch the deadlines

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06 May 2026

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A bill has been registered in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine — bill No.15200 — which proposes a large-scale update of the rules for obtaining driver’s licenses, changes to the age limits for different vehicle categories, and the establishment of full legal force for electronic documents. The draft provides amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On Road Traffic” to bring the rules closer to EU standards.

The document provides for an update of the vehicle classification, namely:

AM – mopeds and light two-wheeled vehicles with a speed of up to 45 km/h;
A2 – motorcycles with power up to 35 kW;
B, C, D – clarification of requirements regarding mass, dimensions and number of seats;
D1 – vehicles of no more than 16 seats and a length of up to 8 meters.

One of the key changes – the principle of gradual access to driving. This means that more complex or more powerful vehicles will not become available immediately, but depending on the driver’s age, category and experience.

Under the proposed rules,

from 15 years – mopeds and light two-wheeled vehicles;
from 17 years – categories B and BE, but only when accompanied by an experienced driver;
from 20 years – powerful motorcycles of category A, if there are 2 years of experience on category A2;
from 24 years – direct access to category A without experience on A2;
from 24 years – buses of categories D and DE;
from 21 years – buses of categories D and DE, if the driver has professional training.

A separate section of the bill concerns digitalization. Electronic driver’s licenses and electronic vehicle registration certificates in “Diia” are to receive the same legal force as paper documents. At the same time the Cabinet of Ministers must determine the procedure for processing and protecting personal data.

The explanatory materials to the bill emphasize that the main goal of the changes is to improve road safety and move to the European model of control over driver training.

The document also provides more detailed grounds for terminating a license, suspending the right to drive or declaring a license invalid. In particular, a license may be declared invalid if

the term of validity of the license has expired;
the document is lost;
the document is destroyed;
the license is stolen;
the driver has exchanged the document for a new one;
the ready license was not collected within 1 year.

If a driver was deprived of the right to drive by a court decision, returning to the wheel may become more difficult. The draft provides that for restoring the right to drive one will have to undergo a medical examination and retake the exams.

At the same time, it is important that this is currently a bill, not an already adopted law. Therefore the final rules may change during consideration in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.

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