On 4 March 2024, the official website of the Register of Damage for Ukraine was launched. The website sheds light on the forthcoming modes of operation of the Register of Damage and outlines the general requirements for claims to be accepted.
The Register of Damage will record claims filed by individuals, entities, and the Ukrainian state for compensation for damage, loss, and injury resulting from aggression by the Russian Federation. The Register will also receive and keep the supporting evidence of these claims.
The Register of Damage will only accept claims filed digitally through the Ukrainian application Diia. Claims must be filed in the Ukrainian language, although the ability to submit claims in English may be introduced later. There will be no charge for filing claims. The official procedure for submitting, processing, and recording claims is currently under development and will be published soon.
While the categories of eligible claims have not yet been finalised, the following types of claims are expected to be covered:
- loss of life, torture, sexual violence, and personal injury;
- involuntary displacement and forced relocation of individuals;
- loss of property and revenue, and other forms of economic loss;
- damage to critical infrastructure and other governmental facilities;
- damage to historic and cultural heritage;
- environmental damage;
- other categories as determined by the Board.
In all instances, eligible claims are those pertaining to damage, loss, or injury that have occurred:
- on or after 24 February 2022;
- in the territory of Ukraine, within its internationally recognised borders including its territorial waters; and
- as a result of the internationally wrongful acts of the Russian Federation in or against Ukraine.
The Register’s Secretariat will review claims and prepare recommendations to the Register’s Board, which will act as the ultimate authority in determining the eligibility of claims. The Board’s decisions will not be subject to appeal.
The Board may reject claims in two ways: “with prejudice”, indicating they are ineligible and cannot be resubmitted; or “without prejudice”, meaning that they lack evidential substantiation and can be resubmitted in due course.
Claims deemed eligible by the Board will be recorded in the Register of Damage for further examination and evaluation by a future international compensation mechanism. The Register will categorise, classify, and organise the claims according to various criteria, but will not examine or evaluate the merits of any claims it receives, assess their value, or order any payments on its own.
The Register of Damage is scheduled to commence accepting claims in April 2024. The exact date will be announced shortly. Initially, the submission process will be limited to a single category of claims: damage and destruction of residential immovable property. Additional categories of claims will be introduced and made available for submission in the near future.
The Register is expected to receive up to ten million claims.
For more information on the recovery of damages caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, contact your CMS advisor or our local CMS team of experts: Olga Shenk, Oleksandr Protsiuk.
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