Capital structure of firms, including its development during crises, has been widely discussed by economists. However, how has capital structure changed during the specific crisis related to the pandemic? Focusing on CEE, we confirmed that corporate leverage decreased significantly in 2020 in most of the examined countries. Regarding capital structure determinants, we confirmed significant negative correlations between leverage and profitability, cash, respectively, among the examined countries that support especially pecking-order theory. These associations were not affected by the pandemic, while, e.g., correlations of leverage and growth opportunities changed in the pre-pandemic period, as well as, in the pandemic period, depending on an examined country.KeywordsLeverageCapital structureCrisis related to the pandemicCEE countries