The office of the Registry of Damages Caused by the Russian Invasion of Ukraine has been opened in Kyiv, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky announced.
Launching the Register of Damages is the first step in the process of creating an international compensation mechanism. The registry will collect claims for compensation and evidence for each of them. Next, a Compensation Council will be formed, which will consider the submitted applications, as well as a Compensation Fund, from which compensation will be paid.
Already at the beginning of April, the international Registry of Damages for Ukraine will start accepting applications from victims of Russian aggression. Opening an office in Kyiv is one of the stages of preparing the registry.
The headquarters of the Loss Register is located in The Hague, but an office in Kyiv is needed to maintain working relations with the Ukrainian authorities. The representative office will also support potential applicants.
How the registry will work
This register is actually a database of evidence of damages, destruction and losses caused by the Russian invasion to the Ukrainian state and all individuals and legal entities. It will become part of the compensation mechanism that will help collect compensation from Russia in accordance with international law, in particular at the expense of Russian assets.
If, for example, a rocket damaged or destroyed a house, its owner submits this data to "Diia", the Register of Damaged and Destroyed Property (RDDP) or local authorities, and he is compensated a certain amount. The state will submit to the International Register information that it financed the restoration of this housing for a certain amount, and it should be compensated for this money. If the state could not help the person, then he can directly submit his application to the Register (when it becomes operational). It will allow large companies whose losses were too large to obtain financial support from the state.