We often have questions about compensation for property destroyed/damaged as a result of armed conflict. This is understandable, as at the end of February 2019 only in Donetsk oblast there were over 12,900 such buildings.

Beyond these statistics and figures there are stories of Ukrainians, ordinary people. They lost their property, they were left without a roof over their heads.  Alexander Dotsenko, a resident of Krasnogorivka was one of them. He appealed for help to the Charity Fund “The Right to Protection” in August 2017. As it turned out, Alexander’s housing was destroyed during the bombing, he was in a place of compact residence. And his only hope to change something for the better is to get compensation for his formerly destroyed dwelling.

So, already on February 2, 2018, our lawyer had prepared a civil suit for collecting compensation from the State for the destruction of housing. May 16, 2018 Marinka District Court satisfied the plaintiff’s claims in full, however, the defendant filed an appeal. Already on September 5, 2018, the Donetsk Court of Appeal overturned the decision completely. So the next step of our lawyers was the submission of a cassation appeal and already on November 21, 2018, the Supreme Court opened the Cassation proceedings on this complaint. As of today, it has been suspended, before consideration by the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court of another case regarding the recovery of compensation from the state for destroyed housing. What does this mean for those citizens who are trying to get compensation for their housing? It’s all very simple: we will have a decision of the Supreme Court, which can later refer to the lower courts.

P.S. Oleksandr Anatolievich already knows the monitors of the CF “The Right to Protection” who work at Marinka EECP, so he never loses the opportunity to communicate. He was able to communicate with other representatives of our Kyiv office: the President of the CF “Right to Protection” Alexander Galkin and the project manager Maria Aliekseenko, who are now visiting the regional offices of the CF “The Right to Protection” and the EECPs. Such visits are crucial for us  because it is impossible to understand the problems of those who turn to us for help, to draw a further scheme of action without such direct communication.