Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine Iryna Mudra took part at the Side-event "The Register of Damage Caused by the Aggression of the Russian Federation Against Ukraine", which took place within the framework of the Sixth Committee of the United Nations General Assembly.
Iryna Mudra began her speech with a reminder about there is no country that was not affected, directly or indirectly by the consequences of the war in Ukraine. "The results of the brutal aggression have affected the economies of many countries and their populations. The consequences of the environmental damage due military actions, in particular consequences of the explosion of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant, will have a negative affect for many years to come," said Iryna Mudra
For over than eighteen months now, the governments of Western states have been strongly condemning Russian aggression and have been uniting their efforts to hold the aggressor state accountable with the aim of restoring justice. However, practical measures in this direction that would have a significant impact on Russia are still being discussed.
"While we are discussing the importance of preserving peace, efficient tools to end the war, imposing sanctions and declaring that the perpetrator must be punished at all possible international platforms, russia is quietly continuing to carry out its destructive aggressive imperialist policy," - the Deputy Minister of Justice said.
Since Russia's conduct is a serious breach of international law that impacts many states, these states, in turn, should make an effort towards ensuring Russia to satisfy its duty to pay compensation for the damages incurred. «We cannot be responsible for someone, but we must realize what our responsibility before our countries, our nations and the future of the world and next generations,» Iryna Mudra added.
Ukraine has a solution how to bear russia responsible for an act of aggression through ensuring compensation mechanism which allows to implement the principle of state responsibility according to framework of the international law – the state is responsible for its violation of the peremptory norms and is obliged to compensate all the damages, caused by an internationally wrongful act.
According to Iryna Mudra, Russia’s duty to pay compensations could be determined (not only) by Article 31 of the International Law Commission’s Articles on the Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts: "The responsible State is under an obligation to make full reparation for the injury caused by the internationally wrongful act". Also, she mentioned Article 48 which further allows to any State other than an injured State to invoke the responsibility of another State.
During the event, Ukraine urged the states to take action to establish by the international agreement a political and administrative fact-finding mechanism.
Thus, the international Register of Damage, caused by the aggression of Russian Federation against Ukraine is the first component of the special compensation mechanism and has been and is currently in the active phase of commissioning to ensure that claims for compensation can be processed as soon as possible. This is the first step toward achieving our goal of compensating for the damages caused by the aggression of the Russian Federation and restoration of the state.
The creation of the Register of Damage is not the aim. The next significant practical step must be establishment of an international compensation mechanism, immobilization and repurposing of Russian state assets.
Without introducing it as the whole, without the creation of a claims commission and compensation fund, without enabling of legal mechanisms that would allow the transfer of so-called Russian assets to compensation fund in order to pay compensations to the very victims of armed aggression and restoration of Ukraine, the Register will remain only a database of damages which is not acceptable to our government and our people.
"We need to understand that each and every one of us has to take practical steps to stop the brutality and bloodshed that has arisen in the largest country in Europe and has the risk of spreading further throughout the world if we don’t stop the aggressor now," Iryna Mudra.
