At the recent Council of Europe summit in Iceland, its participants set up an international register of losses, that have been caused to Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion by Russia. French President Emmanuel Macron said this and called on the countries to keep the necessary documentation to hold Moscow criminally responsible.
And German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said, that such a register would allow the Council of Europe countries to effectively record together the damages inflicted on Ukraine in order to create conditions for the country’s reconstruction.
Forty of the 46 countries, represented at the summit, signed the document. Turkey, Hungary, Azerbaijan and Serbia are known as those, who have to rejected it.
This document is framed in a rather unusual way. The fact is that – it is not a classic multilateral treaty with dozens of signatures under it, but a general treaty of the Council of Europe created within the organisation. This was done in order to speed up the launch of the register without having to ratify it in each individual CoE country. In addition, an important aspect for its adoption was the fact that the amounts to be paid to Russia were agreed without the involvement of that country.
At the start of Russia’s war against Ukraine, many countries around the world have frozed Russian assets, and over time the funds of some of Moscow’s oligarchs were also frozen. Since then there has been an ongoing debate in Europe and around the world as to how this money could be transferred to Ukraine, contrary to the existing world principle of inviolability of private, let alone state property.
The amounts to be paid will not be calculated by Ukraine, but by an international structure. This will make it possible to systematically confiscate Russia’s assets if the country’s future government does not agree to this voluntarily.
The registry mechanism will be fully digital. It is expected, that as early as this year, most likely in November, an electronic database with identification of the applicant will become operational. Through it, Ukrainians will be able to claim their losses as a result of Russian aggression. What kind of evidence will have to be provided has not yet been specified.
But it is already established that for most cases, including compensation for injuries and loss of life, the amount will be determined according to some common methodology, of which the UN has experience.
