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Compensation for Destroyed or Damaged Property as a Result of Russian Aggression: How to Eliminate Discriminatory Approaches

January 28, 2025

The state needs to ensure the effective functioning of mechanisms for accounting and compensation for real and personal property destroyed, damaged, or misappropriated by the occupation ‘'authorities’', eliminating discriminatory approaches related to the time and territory of the damage.

This was stated by Ksenia Gedz, Advocacy Coordinator of Right to Protection, during the presentation of the Coalition of NGOs' 13 Priority Steps in the Field of Human Rights Protection in the Context of Armed Aggression against Ukraine in 2025. The purpose of the coalition of NGOs is to emphasise the need for the state to ensure a consistent policy towards the affected population and to promote justice and predictability of actions to support those who have suffered damage from the actions of the Russian Federation in Ukraine.

As Ksenia Gedz noted, for almost 11 years, the aggressor has been damaging, destroying, and harming our country and people. According to the World Bank, as of February last year, Ukraine requires USD 486 billion for reconstruction, of which USD 80 billion is needed to rebuild destroyed housing.

“We understand that today, the needs are much greater. In February 2023, a long-awaited Law was adopted to introduce a national compensation mechanism for destroyed or damaged residential property. However, the two years of implementation of this Law have revealed a number of complex shortcomings.

In particular, there is still a discriminatory approach to the inability to receive compensation for those residential properties that were destroyed or damaged before the full-scale invasion in February 2022, as well as the impossibility of receiving compensation for properties located in the TOT of Ukraine at the beginning of the full-scale invasion. This issue has not been resolved in any way, and accordingly, no accounting of such property has been kept for two years, from 19 February 2014 to 24 February 2022.

In addition, the right to receive compensation is currently limited to owners of residential property in active hostilities areas and the TOT of Ukraine. At the same time, the Parliament adopted Draft Law No. 11,161, which is now awaiting the signature of the President of Ukraine. This Draft Law equates real estate located in the area of active hostilities or the TOT of Ukraine to destroyed property for the purposes of compensation. At the same time, we must understand that when adopting this Law, the state must provide financial justification for its implementation and extend its effect to the properties located in the territories occupied until 24 February 2022,” said Ksenia Gedz, Advocacy Coordinator of R2P.

She also drew attention in her speech to the fact that access to the national compensation procedure is currently complicated for those owners of residential real estate whose ownership arose before 1 January 2013 if such ownership information was not entered into the State Register of Real Property Rights. In case of loss or destruction of BTI archives, such ownership cannot be registered in the State Register of Real Property Rights out of court. Accordingly, such property owners are deprived of access to the national compensation procedure.

“That is why the Draft Law No. 11,440 is a significant legislative initiative, simplifying the procedure for state registration of real rights to immovable property in case of loss or destruction of BTI archives. However, it should be noted that it is not only the administrative procedure of state registration that should be simplified. The judicial procedure for confirming ownership of real estate damaged or destroyed due to the war should also be simplified,” said Ksenia Gedz.

The expert also stressed that currently, there is no record of real estate damaged and destroyed between 19 February 2014 and 24 February 2022, no record of damaged and destroyed non-residential property, and no record of destroyed or damaged movable property. It is also necessary to record the illegal actions of the occupation “authorities” and the facts of property aggression of the Russian Federation in the TOT of Ukraine.

“Here, we call on the state to ensure the accounting of movable and immovable, residential and non-residential property damaged and destroyed as a result of armed aggression against Ukraine, as well as the facts of property aggression and the property that was appropriated (‘nationalised’) by the occupation ‘authorities’. 

Concerning the system of accounting for damage to the personal non-property rights of individuals as a result of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation, Draft Law No. 10 256, and accordingly the Law of Ukraine No. 4 071, in fact, in its final and transitional provisions, stipulate the obligation of the government to develop and submit to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine the Draft Law on support for persons whose personal non-property rights have been damaged as a result of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine by 18 December 2024. However, this Draft Law has not been developed, so we call on the government to ensure the proper implementation of this important legislative initiative,’' she added.

Ksenia Gedz also stressed the importance of the Law of Ukraine adopted by the Parliament on 20 November 2024, No. 4,067, On Legal and Social Protection of Victims of Sexual Violence Related to the Armed Aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine and Provision of Immediate Interim Reparations, which introduces the institution of immediate interim reparations for the affected population.

“It is crucial that such an institution also exists for people whose lives and health have been damaged as a result of the armed aggression against Ukraine,” explained Ksenia Gedz.