On the night of March 30, Ukraine will switch to daylight saving time, and at 3 a.m., the clocks will be moved forward one hour.
In Ukraine, clocks are changed to winter and summer time on the last Sunday of October and the last Sunday of March.
Modern watches, smartphones, laptops, and other devices change the time automatically, but mechanical watches will need to be set manually.
Cancellation of clock changes in Ukraine
The transition to summer and winter time is regulated by a Cabinet of Ministers resolution adopted in 1996. Today, almost 60 countries around the world move their clocks forward and back by one hour each year. Most of them are in Europe. And in some countries, such as the USA, Canada, Mexico and Australia, the clocks are not changed throughout the territory.
On July 16, 2024, the Verkhovna Rada finally canceled the transition to summer and winter time. The adopted law establishes a permanent UTC+2 time standard in Ukraine. If the president had signed it, the clocks would have been changed for the last time in the fall of 2024.
However, on July 17, the public organization "Academy of Sciences of Higher Education" called on Zelensky to veto the law on the abolition of the clock change. The request was explained by the fact that the transition to winter time will mean that in late June in Kyiv, dawn will now break at 03:00, and dusk will fall at 20:00 (currently at 04:00 and 21:00, respectively). According to experts, this will significantly increase the costs of institutions, enterprises and households for electric lighting in the evening hours in spring, summer and autumn.
The time allotted for vetoing the law has already passed, but Zelensky has not signed it. BBC News Ukraine sources stated that the president will not sign the law. The reason for this decision is that during the discussions of this law, experts "calculated and saw the disadvantages for the economy — losses of several billions have been estimated".
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