Modern realities have brought a lot of changes to our everyday life. Thus, thousands of Ukrainians were forced not only to leave their own homes, but also to study legislative regulations in order to correctly draw up acts of damage or destruction of property.
Every day, such Ukrainians, Unfortunately, it's only getting bigger. According to the Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine Oleksandr Kubrakov, as of January 10, 2023, 316 thousand people left their applications for compensation for damaged or destroyed housing in the Diya application.
But these numbers do not reflect the true picture of the damage Russia has been doing with its cynical attacks since February 24th. In the fall of 2022, analysts from the Ministry of Communities and Territories Development stated that more than 2.4 million Ukrainians live in damaged or destroyed housing. And how many of those who left their native city or village and do not know that Russia cynically turned their housing into ruins.
That is why the priority task of the state was to restore the destroyed civilian infrastructure. Thanks to foreign investors, volunteers and Ukrainian businesses, even during a full-scale war, Ukraine is slowly working to restore people's homes.
In particular, Vulkan Casino has launched a charity project, which provides assistance to affected Ukrainians and restores their destroyed housing. Anyone can join the initiative. To do this, you only need to ignite a win at Vulkan Casino, which will become a brick in the process.
24 The channel, within the framework of a special project, tells what to do to Ukrainians whose housing was destroyed or damaged by enemies.
What to do if your housing was damaged during the war
The Ukrainian parliament and government have focused their attention on the issue of restoring civilian infrastructure. Politicians are convinced that the Russians will be responsible for every life taken and every piece of our land destroyed. But in order for this to happen in the legal plane, they are already assessing the amount of damage caused by the cynical Russian invasion of Ukraine, and are developing mechanisms for calculating compensation.
In what order people will receive reimbursement is not known for certain, because the legal framework that would regulate all issues is still being created. At the same time, there are already rules that make people understand that compensation will be provided by paying a certain amount, restoring the house, paying for the services of repair teams or providing building materials.
Ukrainians have already started the recovery process/Photo by Shutterstock
At the same time, lawyers recommend that in order to make it easier to receive compensation, Ukrainians need to carefully record their losses caused by the war. If your property, unfortunately, was damaged as a result of enemy attacks, or you learned about it from neighbors or relatives, you should start collecting photo and video materials and submit information to the relevant authorities.
So, according to the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers, You can file a claim for damaged property through the Diya app. To do this, you need to specify:
- Last name, first name and patronymic of the owner of the damaged property.
- Contacts: phone number , email address and other means of communication.
- Identification code, number and series of the passport.
- Details of the affected property: type of property, address where the property was located, total square footage, a free-form description of your home (if the property documents were lost), or copies of title deeds. It is also important to indicate whether the house had the status of a cultural heritage site or a historic site.
- The number of people who lived in the house.
- Information about the damage: in particular, the date when it happened, what exactly was destroyed, if possible, add a photo or video.
You can file a claim for destroyed or damaged property through “Action”/Photo by Pexels
If you are not already a DIA user, you can contact your local Administrative Services Center or Notary Public to help you officially register reports of property damage.
In addition, you can record the fact of the destruction of the house on the sites:
- warcrimes.gov.ua is a portal created on the initiative of the Office of the Prosecutor General and the agency's international partners. The resource helps record Russian war crimes, including damage to Ukrainian property or robbery.
- Humanrights is an intergovernmental platform designed to collect information about violations of human rights, laws and customs of war. In particular, we are talking about the destruction or damage to real estate, as well as forced eviction from the house.
- “Russia will pay” is a project that produces estimates of the total damage to Ukraine. The portal was created not only to record crimes, but also to provide individual compensation.
Of course, unlike the DI application, these resources are not mandatory. However, this is how Ukrainians will be able to unite to overcome the enemy in the legal plane and in the future to bring the perpetrators, including Russian officials, to justice for what they have done.
Do I need to apply to government agencies for information
Due to the full-scale invasion, many Ukrainians became internally displaced and settled in safer regions or abroad. Consequently, not everyone has the opportunity to obtain documentary evidence of damage or destruction of property. Therefore, such Ukrainians should apply through Diya and, if possible, collect photos and videos of the affected property from the media or publications of local authorities. In addition, you can ask neighbors, relatives or volunteers to record the fact of destruction on camera.
But if you have the opportunity to contact the city or village council or the military-civil administration, you should do it and get a act with damage fixing.
You can also file a police report. Law enforcement officers will open criminal proceedings due to damage to your house, and the affected Ukrainians will be given an extract from the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations, which is an important document for further compensation for damage.
In addition, if there was a fire in the house after an enemy attack, the owners of the property should contact the State Emergency Service and get a copy of the act. These documents will come in handy over time to get a full refund.
“Accompanying arguments may be receipts for movable property (equipment, things and other things that were in the house), photos of property before and after destruction, if possible, create a selection of messages about your object in the media. You can use satellite images that confirm it destruction. It is also necessary to collect, if available, any checks (receipts, invoices) for damaged or destroyed property located in real estate, make copies of them,” lawyers advise in their blog.
Get the necessary documents and receipts for the purchased equipment/Pexels photo
How to take photos and videos of damaged housing
Ukrainians have to endure many emotionally difficult moments. And photographing one's own housing that the Russians have destroyed or damaged is one of them.
But no matter how difficult it may be, it is still necessary to fix the crime of the aggressor country. To do this, take a photo and video at the place where the shell hit the building or the blast wave was damaged.
Top photography and video tips:
- First, set up your mobile phone camera so that the geolocation of the object is visible, and See also the time and date the photo was taken.
- Take pictures of the building from different angles and the level of damage. Take time for this process and take as many photos as you can that show the actual damage. Pay special attention to bullet holes, debris, explosion holes and craters.
- If your water supply, sewerage, electricity or other communications are damaged as a result of an enemy attack, take a picture of that as well.
- Indoors, take pictures of the walls, floor, ceiling, furniture, broken technique.
- Do not process photos in graphic editors, but save the footage as it is. Make a copy of these frames to be sure.
- Record video after shooting. It is advisable to start filming with a performance (name your last name, first name and patronymic, address of the house that was damaged). Next, inspect all the damage, commenting what you see, what damage and the like.
- Shoot the house so that the extent of the destruction is visible in the frame.
- Find neighbors or eyewitnesses and record their testimony on camera. Also document in free form everything that was damaged in the apartment or private house.
It is important to take pictures when your life is no longer in danger. After all, after arrival there is a big risk that the projectile, which could not explode, will detonate. Therefore, after clearing the territory and completing all the work of the State Emergency Service, you can begin fixing the destruction.
Journalists can also often work at the sites where enemy shells hit. If your home has been featured in the media, make a copy of this video.
In addition, lawyers advise you to contact the military-civilian administration or the military administration of your locality in order to conduct an examination of damaged or destroyed housing. You can also order a damage assessment from experts from research institutions of the Ministry of Justice or private companies, but in this case, you need to inform the local authorities about this and provide them with a copy of the report. After that, Ukrainians can independently restore damaged property and subsequently receive a refund.
The presence of an expert opinion will allow, without wasting time, to begin the restoration of damaged property and will be the basis for obtaining appropriate compensation in the future, the Ministry of Justice explained.
However, it should be noted that the state funds for the examination will not compensate.
We will gradually rebuild not only our own houses, but the whole of Ukraine. And business, for example, Vulkan Casino, will help us in this.
Thanks to the “Light the Fire of Victory” initiative, the company buys field stoves for Ukrainian military and civilians in the front-line regions, and also accumulates funds to restore the destroyed people's housing. It's easy to contribute to this process! To do this, you need to win at Vulkan Casino and get the full amount of winnings. And the company will transfer at least 1% from its own funds to help Ukrainians affected by the war. Thus, you can join a large-scale charity project without leaving your home. Light your fire of victory today!
