Russia must pay 386.03 billion UAH in damages to Ukrainian companies from frontline regions

Since the start of the full-scale invasion, Ukrainian courts have increasingly issued rulings ordering Russia to compensate businesses for their losses. Only in the frontline regions, 311 decisions have been made during this time, with a total value of over 386 billion UAH. This is half of all rulings in similar cases across the courts.

In 2022, courts issued only 5 such decisions, but the next year their number grew tenfold. And in the current year — which is not even over yet — courts have already issued 124 decisions. As the number of cases grows, the total compensation amounts also increase. In the first year of the full-scale invasion, businesses were awarded only 260 million UAH, but in 2023 the total amount of court decisions rose to almost 77 billion UAH. The absolute peak came in 2024, with more than 297 billion UAH. This year, the total amount has decreased to 11 billion UAH.

Most of these cases involving businesses from frontline regions were handled in Donetsk region — 74 decisions. Next are Zaporizhzhia (67), Dnipro region (54), Mykolaiv (37), and Kharkiv (29).

The most high-profile case was decided by the Commercial Court of Chernihiv region, which issued a record ruling in favor of the agribusiness company "Magnat". Russia must compensate the company 287.89 billion UAH for lost profits from two international projects and for legal expenses. This is the largest satisfied claim since the start of the full-scale invasion.

Because of this case, Chernihiv region now tops the ranking with a total of 344.7 billion UAH awarded — far ahead of all other regions. For comparison: Zaporizhzhia region — 22.9 billion UAH, Donetsk region — 6.36 billion UAH, Odesa region — 4.68 billion UAH.

It’s worth noting that at the end of November this year, the Government approved Resolution No. 1541, which allows businesses in high-risk areas to receive up to 10 million UAH in compensation for property damaged or destroyed as a result of attacks.

In the frontline regions, 79 existing court decisions meet these criteria — for a total amount of more than 241 million UAH. Most of these decisions are in the Dnipropetrovsk region — 30 decisions worth 97.2 million UAH, and in the Mykolaiv region — 17 decisions worth 51.4 million UAH.

In total, since the start of the full-scale invasion, 639 compensation decisions have been issued across Ukraine. Out of them, the vast majority — 549 — were fully satisfied, another 87 — partially satisfied. Only three claims (0.5%) were rejected, all of them in Kyiv in 2024. The largest rejected claim was for more than 61 million UAH in damages: the court decided that the company did not prove a direct link between Russia’s actions and the loss of assets in Crimea.

As a reminder, the Government has launched a compensation mechanism for businesses that were destroyed or damaged as a result of Russia’s armed aggression. The resolution provides direct compensation for frontline regions — areas classified as high-risk. These include the Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Poltava, Sumy, Kharkiv, Kherson, and Chernihiv regions.