Bohdan Karnaukh, lawyer-analyst at the Institute of Legislative Ideas, spoke about the mechanisms of compensation for losses from Russian aggression

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the question of how to deal with frozen Russian assets has become very acute. From that moment on, the first thoughts emerged that the best prospect was to recover everything in favour of Ukraine. The total amount of frozen Russian assets is approximately $300 billion. As of the end of 2023, according to the World Bank, the damage caused by Russian aggression is estimated at $486 billion, so even the full recovery of frozen assets cannot cover this amount. In an interview with the Chornomorske TV Company, Bohdan Karnaukh, an expert at the Institute of Legislative Ideas, noted that most of this amount is in Europe, particularly in Belgium:

‘The Belgian securities depository Euroclear has about €200 billion in its accounts belonging to the Russian Federation.’

The decisions of the United States and the European Union to provide loans from the proceeds of frozen Russian assets are very important. The mechanism has already begun to work, as exemplified by the €35 billion loan approved by the EU Council and the $20 billion from the United States. However, according to the ILI expert, it is difficult to say whether the global community will have enough determination to transfer the entire amount of frozen Russian assets in the future - ‘This is a great step, but it is a beginning that should ultimately lead to the fact that the entire amount will be returned to Ukraine.’

The expert also mentioned the International Register of Losses, which has already started accepting applications for compensation for lost or damaged property from individuals. One of the likely options is that the funds for compensation will be allocated from confiscated Russian assets. However, at the moment, only the register itself has been created, which is responsible for accounting and data collection. At this stage, there is no talk of compensation, as a commission is expected to be set up to assess the amount of possible compensation and a fund that will directly make payments.

Bogdan Karnaukh noted that the process could be quite long and cited the work of the UN Compensation Commission, which was formed after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait:

"The war in Kuwait lasted about six months. The Commission, which was established in 1991, reviewed 2.7 million applications and completed its work on 22 February 2022, which means it took 30 years. We can imagine that the scale in Ukraine is much larger, but I think that the technology for processing applications has also improved."

You can learn more about the mechanism of the UN Compensation Commission, established to review claims and pay compensation for damage and losses caused by Iraq's illegal invasion of Kuwait and subsequent occupation of Kuwait, in the analytics of the Institute of Legislative Ideas. This is a successful case of implementing a compensation mechanism, the experience of which should be taken into account when implementing the Global Compensation Mechanism for Ukraine.

Thus, the issue of confiscation and use of frozen Russian assets for Ukraine's recovery remains one of the key challenges for the international community. Although the first steps have already been taken, the real path to compensation may be long and complicated. Successful implementation of the Global Compensation Mechanism is only possible with the strong support of the international community and coordinated work of all parties involved.