Ukraine and 34 other countries officially approved today plans to create a body to pay compensation for the damage caused to Ukraine by the Russian invasion, the Associated Press reported, quoted by BTA.
The agency notes that it remains unclear where the funds will come from.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told leaders gathered in The Hague that he hopes for strong international support so that "all damage caused by the war can be restored".
The commission will be established with the mediation of the Council of Europe. It would allow Ukrainians to seek compensation for "damage, loss or injury" caused by Russia since the invasion began in February 2022.
The Council of Europe has insisted that Russia pay for this, but there is no clear mechanism to force Moscow. One proposal is to use frozen Russian assets in Europe, valued at tens of billions of dollars.
"The aggressor must pay," Zelensky told the Dutch parliament earlier today.
Yesterday he took part in peace talks in Berlin with US special envoy Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Zelensky has expressed a willingness to give up his country's NATO membership bid in exchange for Western security guarantees, but has rejected U.S. pressure for territorial concessions to Russia.
"These security guarantees are an opportunity to prevent a new wave of Russian aggression," he told reporters. "And this is already a compromise on our part," he added.
35 countries have supported the creation of an international compensation commission, but the treaty for it must now be ratified - a process that usually requires approval by national parliaments. The support at this stage is unprecedented, given that this is still an early stage of a Council of Europe treaty, the AP notes.
The commission will examine claims submitted to the working register, which was established at a Council of Europe meeting in 2023. About 80,000 applications for compensation have been submitted so far. The register is located in The Hague.
The EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaia Kalas announced at a press conference that the EU would allocate 1 million euros to fund the work of the commission. It is estimated that approximately 3.5 million euros are needed.
Many of the countries supporting the commission also support the creation of a new international court under the auspices of the Council of Europe to prosecute senior Russian officials in connection with the full-scale invasion.