diff --git a/cmd/frostfs-adm/internal/modules/morph/download.go b/cmd/frostfs-adm/internal/modules/morph/download.go
deleted file mode 100644
index 3c50c0b34e..0000000000
--- a/cmd/frostfs-adm/internal/modules/morph/download.go
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,40 +0,0 @@
-package morph
-
-import (
-	"context"
-	"errors"
-	"fmt"
-	"io"
-	"net/http"
-	"strings"
-
-	"github.com/google/go-github/v39/github"
-	"github.com/spf13/cobra"
-)
-
-func downloadContractsFromGithub(cmd *cobra.Command) (io.ReadCloser, error) {
-	gcl := github.NewClient(nil)
-	release, _, err := gcl.Repositories.GetLatestRelease(context.Background(), "nspcc-dev", "frostfs-contract")
-	if err != nil {
-		return nil, fmt.Errorf("can't fetch release info: %w", err)
-	}
-
-	cmd.Printf("Found %s (%s), downloading...\n", release.GetTagName(), release.GetName())
-
-	var url string
-	for _, a := range release.Assets {
-		if strings.HasPrefix(a.GetName(), "frostfs-contract") {
-			url = a.GetBrowserDownloadURL()
-			break
-		}
-	}
-	if url == "" {
-		return nil, errors.New("can't find contracts archive in release assets")
-	}
-
-	resp, err := http.Get(url)
-	if err != nil {
-		return nil, fmt.Errorf("can't fetch contracts archive: %w", err)
-	}
-	return resp.Body, nil
-}
diff --git a/cmd/frostfs-adm/internal/modules/morph/initialize_deploy.go b/cmd/frostfs-adm/internal/modules/morph/initialize_deploy.go
index 1e35fb79f0..7e03eae20a 100644
--- a/cmd/frostfs-adm/internal/modules/morph/initialize_deploy.go
+++ b/cmd/frostfs-adm/internal/modules/morph/initialize_deploy.go
@@ -401,8 +401,7 @@ func (c *initializeContext) readContracts(names []string) error {
 	} else {
 		var r io.ReadCloser
 		if c.ContractPath == "" {
-			c.Command.Println("Contracts flag is missing, latest release will be fetched from Github.")
-			r, err = downloadContractsFromGithub(c.Command)
+			return errors.New("contracts flag is missing")
 		} else {
 			r, err = os.Open(c.ContractPath)
 		}
diff --git a/cmd/frostfs-adm/internal/modules/morph/root.go b/cmd/frostfs-adm/internal/modules/morph/root.go
index 1361fe1584..431be125c8 100644
--- a/cmd/frostfs-adm/internal/modules/morph/root.go
+++ b/cmd/frostfs-adm/internal/modules/morph/root.go
@@ -309,7 +309,8 @@ func initUpdateContractsCmd() {
 	RootCmd.AddCommand(updateContractsCmd)
 	updateContractsCmd.Flags().String(alphabetWalletsFlag, "", "Path to alphabet wallets dir")
 	updateContractsCmd.Flags().StringP(endpointFlag, "r", "", "N3 RPC node endpoint")
-	updateContractsCmd.Flags().String(contractsInitFlag, "", "Path to archive with compiled FrostFS contracts (default fetched from latest github release)")
+	updateContractsCmd.Flags().String(contractsInitFlag, "", "Path to archive with compiled FrostFS contracts")
+	_ = updateContractsCmd.MarkFlagRequired(contractsInitFlag)
 }
 
 func initDumpBalancesCmd() {
@@ -370,7 +371,8 @@ func initInitCmd() {
 	RootCmd.AddCommand(initCmd)
 	initCmd.Flags().String(alphabetWalletsFlag, "", "Path to alphabet wallets dir")
 	initCmd.Flags().StringP(endpointFlag, "r", "", "N3 RPC node endpoint")
-	initCmd.Flags().String(contractsInitFlag, "", "Path to archive with compiled FrostFS contracts (default fetched from latest github release)")
+	initCmd.Flags().String(contractsInitFlag, "", "Path to archive with compiled FrostFS contracts")
+	_ = initCmd.MarkFlagRequired(contractsInitFlag)
 	initCmd.Flags().Uint(epochDurationCLIFlag, 240, "Amount of side chain blocks in one FrostFS epoch")
 	initCmd.Flags().Uint(maxObjectSizeCLIFlag, 67108864, "Max single object size in bytes")
 	initCmd.Flags().Bool(homomorphicHashDisabledCLIFlag, false, "Disable object homomorphic hashing")
diff --git a/go.mod b/go.mod
index 551fb0fb76..2f0244c6ed 100644
--- a/go.mod
+++ b/go.mod
@@ -11,7 +11,6 @@ require (
 	github.com/cheggaaa/pb v1.0.29
 	github.com/chzyer/readline v1.5.1
 	github.com/flynn-archive/go-shlex v0.0.0-20150515145356-3f9db97f8568
-	github.com/google/go-github/v39 v39.2.0
 	github.com/google/uuid v1.3.0
 	github.com/hashicorp/golang-lru/v2 v2.0.1
 	github.com/klauspost/compress v1.16.5
@@ -59,7 +58,6 @@ require (
 	github.com/go-logr/stdr v1.2.2 // indirect
 	github.com/golang/protobuf v1.5.3 // indirect
 	github.com/golang/snappy v0.0.3 // indirect
-	github.com/google/go-querystring v1.1.0 // indirect
 	github.com/gorilla/websocket v1.4.2 // indirect
 	github.com/grpc-ecosystem/grpc-gateway/v2 v2.7.0 // indirect
 	github.com/hashicorp/golang-lru v0.6.0 // indirect
diff --git a/go.sum b/go.sum
index 185e3e00d9..3e5bcd5704 100644
Binary files a/go.sum and b/go.sum differ