Deputy Head of President’s Office explains how International Register of Damages will work

The relevant statement was made by Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Iryna Mudra in a commentary to an Ukrinform correspondent.

“We are starting to work with applications regarding the destroyed or damaged housing property. This category was chosen for a reason, because today Ukraine already has the register of damaged and destroyed property, which is being maintained by the state, and this information will be available for transfer to the International Register, as digitalized as possible. It was meant to be so, because we saw from previous examples of historical compensation commissions that working with paper records required a lot of time, resources and money. Hence, a decision was endorsed to make the Register exclusively digital. Accordingly, all information will be provided electronically. For this purpose, the Diia system will be used, which has proven itself as a powerful and reliable digital platform,” Mudra told.

In her words, after the application is submitted, the Secretariat of the International Register records, processes, systematizes and classifies the received applications. By a decision of the Board of the International Register, the application will be added to the Register of Damages, where it will be kept together with the evidence and data until it is handed over to the Application Review Commission, which is yet to be created.

“So far, there is no such commission, but this information will be kept until the commission is created. Therefore, if there are any files, information, documents, video and photo recordings of the incident, they should be uploaded together with the application when filing it through the Diia app. If they are inaccessible, unreadable or damaged by viruses, such an application cannot be accepted for processing by the Register. However, this does not mean that the application cannot be re-submitted,” Mudra explained.

According to the Deputy Head of the President’s Office, along with information about the applicant, it is important to provide the evidence confirming that the damage was caused as a result of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

“However, the Register does not actually assess the applications and does not award any refund or compensation, because the procedures and rules for compensation are the next stage. This is the stage that will be carried out by the compensation commission. But, all information, together with the database of the Register of Damages, will be handed over to the application review commission after it is created. And we are working on this right now,” Mudra added.

She mentioned that information about application forms and fill-in instructions are available for citizens on the Register’s website and the Justice Ministry’s website in two languages, Ukrainian and English. Ukraine’s Justice Ministry will also provide consultations to citizens via free legal advice centers.