On February 23, a new category of claims appeared in the International Register of Damage Caused by Russia — A1.2 “Forced Displacement Outside Ukraine”. It concerns Ukrainians who were forced to leave the country due to Russian aggression and cannot return home.
This was reported by the MP Olena Shulyak, the head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on the Organization of State Power, Local Self-Government, Regional Development and Urban Planning.
According to her, as of December 2025, according to various estimates, there were 5.86 million refugees from Ukraine in the world, of which approximately 5.3 million were in Europe. They now have the opportunity to submit applications for moral damages from forced displacement outside Ukraine to the international Register of Damages.
Shulyak explained that people who were granted protection or asylum in another state due to Russiaʼs full-scale invasion of Ukraine will be considered forcibly displaced outside Ukraine.
The compensation amounts for applications in this category will be determined when the Compensation Commission begins operating.
"Statements in this category relate directly to the fact of forced displacement outside Ukraine as a form of harm caused by the aggression of the Russian Federation. That is, we are talking exclusively about moral damages. Statements related to the material consequences of such displacement, in particular, the loss of paid work, housing or other economic losses, as well as the deportation of children and adults, are filed in other relevant categories of the register," Shulyak explained.
The MP also added that, taking into account the new category, a third of all planned ones have already been opened in the International Register of Damages. In particular, applications can now be submitted to the Register in the following non-material categories: forced internal displacement, serious bodily injury, sexual violence, death of a close family member, disappearance of a close family member, torture, forced labor or service, deportation of children and adults, etc.
In addition, Shulyak noted, it is also about the possibility of filing in categories of material damage, such as damage or destruction of non-residential real estate, loss of access to or control over real estate in temporarily occupied territories, etc. In the near future, they plan to open a number of other categories of applications, in particular, for the state and legal entities.
According to the MP, in all previous categories, Ukrainians have already submitted over 115 000 applications, over 30 000 have been considered and entered into the Register. It is expected that after the opening of the new category, the number of applications will grow rapidly, since we are talking about millions of citizens who are potential applicants.
Register of losses due to Russian aggression
The International Register of Damages was established on 17 May 2023, with over 40 Council of Europe member states, as well as the United States, Japan and Canada signing the agreement. It began operating in April 2024.
One of the instruments of this register should be the Compensation Commission, which will study all applications and assess the real amount of damages; its creation was supported by the PACE in October. In the third stage, the Russian Federation should pay compensation.
Ukraine also has a Register of Damaged and Destroyed Property, which went into effect in 2022. If people used the “eRecovery” program, information about the damage caused is recorded in this register, and they have a report of the commission survey of the damage from the local authorities. As the executive director of the International Register of Damages Markiyan Klyuchkovsky said, at the first stages of the program, they decided to take information from the Register from the state.
On December 16, the Council of Europe began forming a Commission to compensate Ukraine for losses from Russian aggression.
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