Who inherits without a will in Ukraine?
In Ukraine the spouse, the children and the parents of the person inherit equal shares, as the first queue of heirs.
Updated October 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.
A spouse and children survive
The spouse, the children and the parents form the first queue and inherit in equal shares.
A spouse survives, but no children
The spouse is in the first queue. With no children and no parents the spouse takes everything.
No spouse: who comes next
Five queues: first, spouse, children and parents; second, siblings and grandparents; third, uncles and aunts; fourth, people who lived with the person as a family for at least five years; fifth, other relatives and dependants. If none, the estate goes to the state.
A partner who is not married
A person who lived with the deceased as a family for at least five years before the death is an heir in the fourth queue.
What a will cannot take away
Minor or disabled children and disabled spouse and parents are owed at least half of what they would have received by law, whatever the will says.
If the person or the property is abroad
The country has its own rules on which law governs an estate. An estate with a foreign element needs advice in each country involved.
Understand the legal system first
Ukraine belongs to the Civil law family. Succession law grows out of the legal tradition, so it helps to know how the system works.
Read the Ukraine legal-system profile in the Legal Families Atlas →
Who owns what in a marriage in Ukraine? →
Official sources
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TheLawToKnow Tools’s inheritance guide is an educational overview of general rules. It is not legal advice, and it does not replace the official source or a lawyer in the country. Report a mistake.
