A Ukrainian tried to sue Russia for 999 quadrillion UAH in war damages

At least 1,482 court decisions about compensation from Russia have been recorded in the court registry. Since the start of the full-scale war, Ukrainians have been going to court more often each year to get compensation for material and emotional damages caused by the war.

In 2022, there were only 52 such decisions. But last year, the number grew to 812. And since the beginning of this year, 213 decisions have already been made. Opendatabot continues to monitor court cases against Russia and the Damage Register.

Last year, courts made 239 decisions to fully approve claims by individuals, and 39 decisions to reject them.

Businesses mostly win these cases: 224 cases were approved, and only 3 were rejected.

This year, courts have approved 53 claims and rejected 6 from Ukrainian citizens. For businesses, 68 claims were approved, and none were rejected.

The largest compensation for a citizen was 328 million UAH — awarded to a person from Kharkiv. Two other citizens from Zaporizhzhia won 170 million UAH each.

Among businesses, the highest payouts went to the agricultural company Magnat — 180 billion UAH in one case and 67 billion UAH in another. Next was the Alchevsk Coke Plant, which received 12 billion UAH.

In total, from 2022 until now, Ukrainian people and businesses have won 913 billion UAH in damages from Russia. But that’s still far less than what one man from Khmelnytskyi region tried to claim — 999 quadrillion UAH. Even the biggest rejected business claim was much smaller — 61.9 million UAH.

«The court decisions made by Ukrainian courts in cases about damages caused by Russia’s war bring many challenges — especially when it comes to enforcing them.

Russia is very unlikely to recognize or follow these rulings voluntarily. Other countries will probably refuse to enforce them too, using legal immunity as a reason. In Ukraine, there isn’t enough Russian-owned property to actually enforce these decisions.

The statistics clearly show this problem is growing. It’s not just that more rulings are being made — the quality is also an issue, because it’s becoming more and more difficult to make these rulings work in real life. That’s a risk not only for the people making claims, but also for trust in the whole court system.

The numbers show that the government urgently needs to find ways to fix this — both through new laws and better cooperation between courts and government officials», 

— says lawyer Ivan Horodyskyi, director of the Dnistryanskyi Center.

That’s why, after winning their cases in Ukrainian courts, businesses often turn to international courts. For example, Naftogaz managed to get permission from a Paris court to enforce a $5 billion compensation ruling for damages caused by the illegal use of its assets in Crimea. This legal battle has been going on since 2016.