Compensation for war damage

How to report war damages in Ukraine

The Ukrainian government, Prosecutor General’s Office, and private institutions and businesses have been engaged to create various resources for recording war damages:

Diia – a Ukrainian public app where individuals can record round-the-clock damaged personal residential property.

Damaged.in.ua – a resource developed in collaboration with the government, President’s Office, and Kyiv School of Economics Institute, aimed at collecting all information on destroyed and damaged infrastructure, business and public buildings.

Humanrights.gov.ua – a governmental resource for reporting war crimes and submitting evidence, including on property, regarding damage and destruction. This resource gathers information for further submissions to the ECHR.

SEI Platform – a platform maintained by the State Ecological Inspectorate of Ukraine to process applications about environmental harm caused by Russian aggression.

Warcrimes.gov.ua – a Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine resource, where a witness can submit information on war crimes, including damage to and the destruction of infrastructure, healthcare, educational, business property, etc.

Tribunal – a platform for collecting evidence for the further investigation of crimes, including information on war crimes, cybercrimes, the personal data of Russian soldiers, information about military equipment used by Russian soldiers in Ukraine, etc.

How to prove you suffered war damage/destroyed real estate and therefore have a claim?

Before any specific procedures are approved, everyone (individuals and legal entities) should:

— Collect and keep all documents regarding damaged AND destroyed real property in a safe place (title documents, technical inventory reports, designs, appraisals, permitting documents for construction and commissioning, in hard copies and scans).

— If title documents are lost and official electronic registers lack relevant information, you can try to obtain an official duplicate (for the notarised documents) or an official copy (for non-notarised documents). The relevant information confirming that you indeed have title to the property can also be requested from archives or established by a court as a legal fact.

— Collect evidence including photos and videos, official announcements on shelling, bombing, and military operations in your region, witness statements, emergency service reports prepared by officials who were at the scene, call the police and report a crime, order a technical inventory or structural survey.

— Submit a report about your damaged or destroyed property via Diia, Warcrimes.gov.ua and Damaged. in.ua.

(law in progress) Parliament considers a special procedure for individuals to recover war damages (Draft law No. 71986 ) that, if adopted, will provide:

— Applying in electronic or paper form to a compensation committee to be established by municipal authorities.

— The committee processing the application (grounds for compensation, feasibility study to assess the possibility of renovating the property, evaluating damages, etc.).

— If the application is approved, transferring the compensation within 30 days in the form of: (i) monetary compensation; or (ii) financing the construction of a new residential real property or financing renovation works.

— Entering into an agreement with the Ukrainian authorities on the assignment of rights to claim compensation for war damages caused by Russian aggression.

— Introducing information on compensation recipients, damaged property, and decisions on compensation into the State Register of Destroyed, Damaged or Lost Property as a Result of Aggression by the Russian Federation.

More useful information in the CMS guide "War damage in Ukraine: all you need to know to obtain compensation".