Council of Europe prepares compensation mechanism for Ukraine’s war victims

Editor's note: this story was translated from the original VOA Ukrainian article.

The Council of Europe is working with the Ukrainian government and other partners to establish a compensation mechanism to reimburse losses incurred by ongoing Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities.

Russia has recently intensified attacks on Ukrainian businesses, railways, logistics hubs, gas stations, data centers, energy infrastructure and other targets, causing not only major loss of life and injuries but also tremendous economic damage to Ukraine.

According to the latest assessment by the World Bank, covering the period from February 2022 through the end of 2025, the total economic losses incurred by Ukraine’s public, municipal and private sectors because of the war amounted to approximately $195 billion. That figure continues to rise with every new attack.

One element of the process to reimburse these losses is the creation of the Register of Damage Caused by the Aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine. The project is supported by the Council of Europe.

According to data provided to VOA by the Council of Europe on September 25, 192,000 claims for compensation already have been submitted to the Register across 40 categories. They include loss of housing, the death or disappearance of a family member, torture, sexual violence and other harms. More categories will be added.

The International Claims Commission for Ukraine will then review the claims and determine the amount of compensation. So far, 41 countries and the European Union have signed the convention establishing the commission.

Nine countries, including Ukraine, have ratified it. According to information from Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry, the commission will begin its work once at least 25 parliaments ratify the convention.

In an interview with VOA, Council of Europe Secretary General Alain Berset emphasized that political will is needed first and foremost for the commission to begin its work – “not only to sign the instruments, but also to ratify them.”

Compensation payments to victims will be made from a special compensation fund. According to Berset, it is still too early to discuss the sources that will finance the fund.

“Destruction is happening every day. Civilians are being killed every day. But when it comes to the discussion about reconstruction, then financing will become the key issue. What we are preparing now will be the only way to take into account everything that has happened during the war in order to rebuild Ukraine,” Berset said.

According to Berset, funding will come from both public and private funds of countries that will participate in Ukraine’s reconstruction. One possible source could be frozen Russian assets, as the Ukrainian side has proposed.

“So, this discussion will take place. It is ongoing, but right now the main thing for us is to establish a fully functioning accountability mechanism as quickly as possible,” the Council of Europe secretary general said.

Until recently, responsibility within the Ukrainian government for creating the compensation mechanism lay with Iryna Mudra, deputy head of the Office of the President, who is currently in custody as part of a corruption investigation.

According to Berset, the Council of Europe’s main partner on this issue is the Ukrainian government as a whole, first and foremost Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha. On the Council of Europe side, dozens of staff members are working on the issue.

“The Register is being handled by offices in The Hague, Netherlands, and in Ukraine. We have 100 staff members working in Ukraine, and some of them are working specifically on these issues. This means that we are working at the institutional level with one of our member states,” Berset said.

At the Council of Europe headquarters in Strasbourg on June 25, 2025, Berset signed an agreement establishing a Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine. Its mandate will be, according to the Council of Europe website, to “prosecute the highest political and military leaders for the crime of aggression against Ukraine.”

Earlier this year, on May 16, an agreement establishing and financing the Tribunal was adopted in Chisinau, Moldova. It was joined by 38 countries and the European Union.

“Now we need several things. The first is a clear budget, so that all the states that wish to participate understand how they should prepare for it. We are preparing this together with the Netherlands, because the Special Tribunal will be organized in The Hague, and the Netherlands is providing the estimates that we are working on further,” Council of Europe Secretary General Berset explained.

He acknowledged that establishing the Tribunal would not be easy but said that steps like these will determine what kind of world humanity lives in tomorrow.

“Do we want to live in a world dominated by war, violence, brute force, the force of law and impunity, or in a world based on rules, peaceful relations and accountability? That is precisely what is at stake for us at this moment,” the official said.