The Ministry of Justice told how they will seek the payment of reparations by Russia
Currently, there is no effective mechanism that would allow for the payment of reparations for Russia's armed invasion of Ukraine. Therefore, at the moment, the Ukrainian Ministry of Justice is working on the creation of such a mechanism, said Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine Iryna Mudraya. “Not a single international body that exists today – the International Court of Justice, the European Court of Human Rights, arbitration courts resolving disputes in accordance with the Agreement between Ukraine and the Russian Federation on the mutual protection of investments, as well as national courts – for various reasons, do not provide an opportunity to attract Russia to be held accountable for such massive destruction and receive effective compensation.Besides, the veto power that the Russian Federation has in the UN Security Council effectively renders any UN mechanism, whether existing or new, largely ineffective.After all, no one harbors illusions that Russia can somehow admit its offenses and voluntarily agree to compensation for damage to Ukraine and its citizens,” she said. Therefore, according to the Deputy Minister, a working group has been created in the Ministry of Justice to create a new mechanism compensation for damage caused by Russia's illegal armed invasion of Ukraine. “Such a mechanism would provide for the creation of an international claims commission for Ukraine, which would have jurisdiction to consider claims by individuals, legal entities and states regarding losses caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It will also create a compensation fund financed from the assets of Russia and related parties arrested or made available for arrest in the jurisdictions of the participating States, from which the decisions of the international claims commission will be satisfied.Finally, the mechanism will provide for the means of ensuring that the decisions of the commission are enforced by the national courts of the participating States and address, among other things, the issue of limiting the sovereign immunities of Russia and its assets due to its gross violations of international law,” Mudraya added. Speaking about the timing of the introduction of such a mechanism, the Deputy Minister noted that “this is a rather lengthy process.” ” Everything related to international law and international international relations as a whole, a rather lengthy process. In our case, the introduction of a compensation mechanism will require not only negotiations at the level of foreign delegations, but also the passage of a number of internal procedures related to changes in the national legislation of states. At the same time, the issue of compensation is critical for Ukraine and Ukrainians, so it is planned to conclude an international agreement on the basis of which the mechanism will work, and, in fact, to introduce the mechanism itself as soon as possible,” she said.
