International Compensation Commission for Ukraine established in The Hague
In The Hague, during an international conference, the Council of Europe and the Dutch government signed a convention establishing an International Compensation Commission for Ukraine. The document was supported by 35 countries, which was one of the largest simultaneous accessions to a new international treaty.
The event was attended by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Secretary General of the Council of Europe Alain Berset, Prime Minister of the Netherlands Dick Schoof, EU High Representative Kaja Kallas and delegations from over 50 countries.
Zelensky stressed that compensation mechanisms should receive sufficient international support so that war victims could really feel the possibility of compensation for the damage caused. According to him, Russia's responsibility should not be declarative, but practical.
The Commission will become the second component of the international mechanism for compensation of losses and will work on the basis of the already established Register of Losses for Ukraine. The next step is to launch the Compensation Fund. According to the Council of Europe's Secretary General, its creation may take 12 to 18 months. Payments will be made after the fund is fully launched and applications are processed.
The Prime Minister of the Netherlands confirmed the country's readiness to accept the Compensation Commission. He stressed that Russia strikes at Ukrainian homes, businesses and energy infrastructure almost every day, and such actions cannot go unpunished. The Hague, as the international capital of peace and justice, logically becomes the place where key legal institutions work on Russian aggression.
