In October 2026, air raid alarms covered a record 32.5% of the operating time of shopping centers in Ukraine. The indicator continued to grow for the third month in a row, creating additional difficulties for retail operators and tenants.

This is evidenced by the results of a study by the Ukrainian Council of Shopping Centers (UCSC), published on November 2.

Over the month, the share of working time of shopping centers during which air raid alarms sounded increased by 1.7 percentage points. In September, this indicator was 30.8%, in August - 21.8%. For comparison, in October 2025, alarms covered only 12.2% of the working time of shopping centers.

Thus, over the year, the share of air raid alarms during the working hours of retail facilities increased by more than 2.6 times.

According to UCSC, in October all key indicators tracked by the organization worsened: the total number of air raid alarms, their number during shopping center operating hours, and their total duration and duration during working hours.

Almost ten working days under air raid alarms

According to analysts' calculations, the average equivalent of forced downtime of shopping centers due to air raid alarms in October was 9.8 working days. In September, this indicator was equal to 9.6 days.

Since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, the cumulative indicator of such downtime on average in Ukraine reached 186.3 working days.

At the same time, these calculations characterize the duration of air raid alarms during shopping center operating hours, and not the actual closure of each store for the entire specified period.

After the introduction of differentiated levels of air threat, some shopping centers may continue operating during a yellow alert provided safety requirements are met. During a red alert, work must be stopped.

In October, red-level alerts accounted for 36.7% of the total duration of air threats. In September, their share was 39.1%. Thus, despite the increase in total duration of alerts, the share of the most dangerous level decreased slightly.

Which regions experienced the worst deterioration

The most noticeable deterioration of the security situation during October was recorded in Dnipropetrovsk region, as well as in a number of central and western regions.

In particular, the duration of air raid alarms during shopping center operating hours increased significantly in Khmelnytskyi, Rivne, Volyn, Vinnytsia, and Zhytomyr regions.

Conversely, improvement in indicators occurred in Cherkasy, Poltava, Odesa, and Kherson regions, as well as in Kyiv.

The smallest share of working time under air raid alarms continues to be recorded in Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Chernivtsi regions. There this indicator remains below 3%.

The most difficult situation overall persists in the frontline regions. The top five regions with the longest duration of alerts between 10:00 and 21:00 include Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy, Chernihiv, and Kharkiv regions.

Impact on shopping center operations

The increase in the duration of air raid alarms during daytime hours creates additional risks for retail. Interruption of operations limits customer access to stores, complicates shift planning, and may affect tenant revenue.

At the same time, the ability to continue operations during a yellow alert level depends on compliance with established safety requirements and the availability of appropriate shelters or safe spaces.

As previously reported by "Kurs Ukrainy", the government is preparing changes to the rules for business operations during air raid alarms. Enterprises are planned to be given more time to set up shelters and clarify the procedure for applying certain requirements. At the same time, mandatory safety measures are not planned to be abolished.

For calculations, the Ukrainian Council of Shopping Centers uses data on air raid alarms between 10:00 and 21:00. Before analysis, the information is cleaned of duplicates and incorrect records, in particular, alarms lasting more than 24 hours are not taken into account.

Based on materials from: Ukrainian Council of Shopping Centers