by License plates that are sold with a car through ‘Diia’ are no longer transferred for storage to the service centers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. During an online transaction, the car owner themselves decides everything: to leave the old license plates to the buyer or simply destroy them themselves. No trips to the TSC (Transport Service Center) are required in this case.
Since the beginning of 2025, almost 185 thousand vehicles have already been sold through ‘Diia’. About 14% of buyers – over 25 thousand – have ordered new license plates of the DI series for themselves. The largest number of such sets have been installed on passenger cars – over 19 thousand. Next are electric vehicles, motorcycles, and mopeds. This means that the majority of Ukrainians leave the old license plates on the car, but quite a few owners face the question: what to do with the license plates if the buyer has chosen new ones?
The Ministry of Internal Affairs explains that during online re-registration, the old license plates are not transferred for storage to the TSC of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Therefore, if the owner does not want to transfer them to the buyer, they can simply dispose of them. However, using these license plates in the future, when they are not assigned to a vehicle, is prohibited.
If the car owner needs to leave the license plate for storage, then the transaction will have to be concluded not in ‘Diia’, but in person at the service center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
During the online transaction process, the buyer chooses one of the options: to keep the old license plates or to reserve new ones in the DI series. This is where the paradox arises: formally, you can ‘reserve’ a license plate, but in practice, this service has not been working for about a month. This applies to the reservation of any license plates, regardless of the type of vehicle.
Next, the buyer determines whether they need a combination with an additional payment, chooses an electronic or plastic registration certificate, specifies the Ukrposhta branch for delivery, and pays for the service. Receiving the license plates and documents usually takes up to ten days. If only an electronic certificate is ordered, the car can be used immediately after the document appears in ‘Diia’.
