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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
PB October/November 2023 October/November 2023 77
not supported by Germany and the European
Central Bank. We really hope for counter-
proposals from the European Commission on the
options described above.
Regarding the legal mechanisms for receiving
compensation from the Russian Federation, I
would highlight the following:
1.
ECHR. Since 2014, Ukraine has filed 5 lawsuits
against the Russian Federation but it is no
longer a party to the Convention and is not a
member of the Council of Europe.
2.
International Court of Justice. Ukraine can
initiate a dispute only on the basis of those
conventions in accordance with which the
Russian Federation has given its consent, and
these are 3 conventions: the International
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Racial Discrimination, the International
Convention for the Suppression of the
Financing of Terrorism and the Convention on
the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of
Genocide .
3.
Investment arbitration. There are already
enough precedents for private investors filing
lawsuits against the Russian Federation for lost
Crimean assets. But there have been no claims
filed regarding lost assets in the occupied
territories of Eastern Ukraine yet.
4. National courts.
5.
There are very few Russian state assets in
Ukraineand implementing a decision of a
Ukrainian court abroad is very dicult
Unfortunately, international law turned out to
be powerless in responding to full-scale military
aggression. It is for this reason that Ukraine
initiated and proposed to international partners
the concept of a Special International
Compensation Mechanism. It consists of an
International Register of Losses (already created
and voted on the basis of an expanded partial
agreement with the EU), a Commission for the
consideration of applications (the Competition
for Board representatives has already been
launched), and a Compensation Fund for the
payments themselves.
One of the main tasks is the sources of
financing for the Compensation Fund. We admit
that the Russian Federation will not participate in
this process and will not agree to direct financing
of the Fund. Then the absolute priority becomes
the use of sovereign funds of the Russian
Federation, immobilized in other countries, to pay
compensation.
Iryna Romanivna Mudra is a Ukrainian lawyer and
Deputy Minister for Justice.
war? They are on both the political and legal
planes or are interconnected. If we dwell on
political mechanisms, I would highlight the
following:
1.
Reparations. Expecting the Russian
Federation to recognize reparations at the
moment is a waste of time, since the Russian
Federation does not recognize the very fact of
war and its own aggression. Also, paying
reparations to the state is not the same as
receiving compensation for the victims.
Therefore, reparations, in my opinion, are an
unlikely scenario.
2.
Confiscation of frozen assets of the Russian
Federation in foreign jurisdictions.
3. Receiving income from assets frozen abroad.
4.
Obtaining financing from partner countries
secured by Russian frozen assets.
5.
Receiving a percentage of Russia’s sales of oil,
petroleum products and gas (a similar
decision after the Iraq-Kuwait war).
Regarding point 2, the situation with the
confiscation of frozen assets of the Russian
Federation in foreign jurisdictions, only a few
states have made changes to their legislation to
confiscate Russian assets.. Negotiations are
ongoing.
I would like to dwell in detail on point 3
(receiving income from frozen assets). At the
initiative of Ukraine, the EU considered possible
options, namely, the reinvestment of assets in
order to receive dividends, and the introduction
of a special tax on profits received from such
assets.
The first option turned out to be dicult both
from a political and legal point of view and was
R
ussia initiated unprovoked and
unjustified aggression against
Ukraine, violating the UN Charter’s
prohibition on the use of force
against the territorial integrity and
sovereignty of our state. Its daily armed
aggression leads to massive destruction and
damage to critical infrastructure. Russian troops
are committing war crimes. Violations of
fundamental human rights have been identified
on the territory of Ukraine, including sexual
violence, torture and murder of civilians.
The statistics of the full-scale aggression of the
Russian Federation against Ukraine are terrible:
•
Law enforcement agencies in Ukraine have
registered more than 100 thousand war
crimes, including 3,115 war crimes against
children;
•
11 thousand civilians have beenk illed,
including 503 children;
• More than 17,000 civilians have been injured,
including more than 1,100 children;
• More than 19,500 children have been forcibly
displaced and deported, 1,122 children went
missing;
• 231 cases of sexual violence were registered,
including dozens against children;
•
More than 120 thousand civilian infrastructure
facilities have been destroyed or damaged:
residential buildings, schools, universities,
kindergartens, hospitals, cultural and religious
heritage sites, energy and communications
infrastructure, and the list goes on.
The Kiev School of Economics estimates that
damage to Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure alone
had reached $150 billion by April 2023, and this
amount is constantly increasing. An accurate
estimate based on the cost of restoration will
increase this amount by an order of magnitude.
In March 2023, the World Bank estimated the cost
of reconstruction and restoration of Ukrainian
infrastructure at $411 billion.
What are the possible mechanisms for
recovering funds from the Russian Federation for
subsequent compensation to all victims of the
International law always finds its
violators. It will find Russia.
International law is powerless in responding to full-scale
military aggression so Ukraine initiated and the concept
of a Special International Compensation Mechanism but
the international community must find funding for it
By Iryna Mudra
Iryn Mudr
INTERNATIONAL
