Instituto de Estudios Políticos y Derecho Público "Dr. Humberto J. La Roche"
de la Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Políticas de la Universidad del Zulia
Maracaibo, Venezuela
Esta publicación cientíca en formato digital es continuidad de la revista impresa
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197402ZU34
ppi 201502ZU4645
Vol.39 N° 69
Julio
Diciembre
2021
Recibido el 14/02/2021 Aceptado el 06/06/2021
ISSN 0798- 1406 ~ De pó si to le gal pp 198502ZU132
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Vol. 39, Nº 69 (Julio - Diciembre) 2021, 198-211
IEPDP-Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Políticas - LUZ
Protection of property rights of citizens
in the conditions of foreign military
aggression: political and legal experience
of Ukraine
DOI: https://doi.org/10.46398/cuestpol.3969.11
Filatov Viktor *
Sergey Нerasymchuk **
Oksana Zuieva ***
Oksana Tuieva ****
Dmytrо Kartsyhin *****
Abstract
The aim of the research is a comprehensive analysis of the
problem of protecting property rights against a terrorist threat and
nding ways to solve it. The article deals with the main problems
of protection of property rights under conditions of external
military aggression in Ukraine. The authors, with the example of a separate
case, analyses the problematic aspects of renewing and granting property
rights to citizens residing in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine.
Methodologically, it is a documentary research. It is concluded that the law
and judicial practice of the protection of property rights in the example of
the right to compensation for damaged homes may prove insucient on its
own. The weaknesses of Ukrainian legislation in compensation for damage
caused to citizens in conditions of armed conict and terrorist activity are
discussed in detail. Finally, it emphasizes the role of transitional justice in
improving the law and practice of resolving disputes overcompensation for
moral and material damage under the conditions of occupation of certain
territories of Ukraine.
* Filatov Viktor, Candidate of Juridical Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Civil,
Commercial and Environmental Law University of Customs and Finance, Dnipro, Ukraine. ORCID ID:
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8059-3736. Еmail: latov_viktor@ukr.net
** Sergey Нerasymchuk, Candidate of Juridical Sciences, Senior Lecturer of the Department of Civil,
Commercial and Environmental Law University of Customs and Finance, Dnipro, Ukraine. ORCID ID:
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4038-3048. Еmail: herasymchukss@gmail.com
*** Oksana Zuieva, Candidate of Juridical Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Civil,
Commercial and Environmental Law University of Customs and Finance, Dnipro, Ukraine. ORCID ID:
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8054-1509. Еmail: oksana_zueva@i.ua
**** Oksana Tuieva, Candidatе of Juridical Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of land and
agrarian law The Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University, Kharkiv, Ukraine. ORCID ID: https://
orcid.org/0000-0003-0474-4034. Еmail: Ksushatu67@gmail.com
***** Dmytrо Kartsyhin, Post-graduate student of the Department of Civil, Economic and Environmental
Law at the University of Customs and Finance, Dnipro, Ukraine. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-
0001-7477-9123. Еmail: phoenix.dmytro@icloud.com
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Vol. 39 Nº 69 (Julio - Diciembre 2021): 198-211
Keywords: damage compensation; external military aggression in
Ukraine; protection of property rights; occupation of certain
territories; transitional justice.
Protección de los derechos de propiedad de los
ciudadanos en condiciones de agresión militar
extranjera: experiencia política y legal de Ucrania
Resumen
El objetivo de la investigación es un análisis integral del problema de
la protección de los derechos de propiedad ante una amenaza terrorista
y encontrar formas de solucionarlo. El artículo trata los principales
problemas de protección de los derechos de propiedad en condiciones de
agresión militar externa en Ucrania. Los autores, con el ejemplo de un caso
separado, analizan los aspectos problemáticos de renovar y otorgar derechos
de propiedad a los ciudadanos que residen en el territorio temporalmente
ocupado de Ucrania. En lo metodológico se trata de una investigación
documental. Se concluye que la ley y la práctica judicial de la protección
de los derechos de propiedad en el ejemplo del derecho a indemnización
por viviendas dañadas puede resultar insuciente por si sola. Se discuten
en detalle las debilidades de la legislación ucraniana en el ámbito de la
indemnización por los daños causados a los ciudadanos en condiciones
de conictos armados y actividad terrorista. Por último, se hace hincapié
en el papel de la justicia de transición en la mejora de la legislación y la
práctica de resolver controversias sobre indemnización por daños morales
y materiales en las condiciones de ocupación de determinados territorios
de Ucrania.
Palabras clave: indemnización por daños; agresión militar externa
en Ucrania; protección de los derechos de propiedad;
ocupación de determinados territorios; justicia
transicional.
Introduction
In early 2014, Ukraine faced a number of social upheavals, which
brought about radical changes in public relations and forced the authorities
to respond promptly to internal threats, and subsequently to external ones.
If you look at Ukraine through the prism of transitional justice, then one
should state the uniqueness of the state, because in a rather short time,
200
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Protection of property rights of citizens in the conditions of foreign military aggression: political
and legal experience of Ukraine
it has passed a post-authoritarian period and was in the face of foreign
military aggression on the part of Russia. As a result, the state faced the so-
called “post-conict period”, which brought about the necessity to revise the
doctrine of national security as a whole. Over the past ve years, Ukraine
managed not only to take control of the situation, but also to modernize in
an integrated manner the security sector and adapt national legislation to
transitional justice. However, unfortunately, some aspects were neglected
by the authorities, primarily because the practice of applying international
humanitarian law was not implemented.
One of the key issues today is protecting the property rights of citizens
in conditions of an armed conict. First of all, it is about citizens whose
property was damaged, demolished, destroyed in temporarily occupied
territories or in settlements located on the line of collision. These are
destroyed housing, lost business, damaged property, and the inability to use
property in the temporarily occupied territory. The scale of this problem is
very much signicant, since almost every internally displaced person has
suered certain property losses.
At the present stage of development, more and more of such individuals
turn to the European Court of Human Rights with claims to recognize such
harm and its reimbursement. First of all, this is due to the lack of eective
mechanisms for protecting citizens’ property rights in Ukraine in the face
of terrorist threats and external military aggression. For the most part, such
appeals are possible with the participation of human rights organizations
that implement projects in the eld of protecting the rights of internally
displaced persons at the expense of international nancial contributors.
Unfortunately, the state has not yet shown an active position in resolving
this issue.
Therefore, the main purpose of this article is to systematize the main
problematic aspects of protecting property rights of citizens in the context
of external military aggression and to formulate proposals to resolve this
problem in Ukrainian society. Therefore, it is proposed: to consider the
essence of the problem on the example of a separate case from the practice
of human rights defenders; identify on this basis the shortcomings and gaps
in Ukrainian legislation; to propose clear solutions and recommendations
that will create the proper mechanisms for restoring and ensuring the
property rights of citizens in conditions of an armed conict. The research
should be conducted taking into account the principles and directions of
transitional justice, at the stage of which the modern Ukrainian state is.
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1. Literature review
Since the beginning of the conict in eastern Ukraine, domestic scholars
have begun to analyze issues of political and legal resistance to external
military aggression by Russia. In particular, it should be noted the work of
S. P. Kolisnyk, which reveals the formation of state policy against terrorism
and separatism (Kolisnyk, 2019). It is also worth noting the work of O. I.
Ostapenko, who conducts a comprehensive analysis of the problems of
combating terrorism in the armed conict in the Donbass (Ostapenko, 2017).
These scholars have made a signicant contribution to the development of
theoretical principles of domestic legal science. Also in the process of writing
this article, the authors used the regulations of current legislation and the
practice of their application. These are legislative acts that were adopted
after the beginning of the armed conict. The practical case is presented by
the materials of human rights non-governmental organizations involved in
restoring the rights of victims of terrorist activities in Donbass.
2. Materials and methods
The analysis of the problems outlined above requires using a complex of
general scientic and special legal methods of cognition. Thus, the dialectical
method has been used to clarify the factors that led to the imperfection
of Ukraine’s legislation on the protection of property rights of citizens in
the context of external military aggression, as well as the identication of
trends in the development of such legislation. With the help of the system-
structural method, the analysis of the main shortcomings of the judicial
practice concerning the consideration of cases on the protection of property
rights in the zone of armed conict has been conducted.
Using the formal-logical method, the theoretical positions of the article,
in particular its categorical apparatus, are formulated. Using the methods
of analysis and synthesis allowed to propose the ways to resolve the
problem of ineectiveness of protecting property rights of citizens in the
temporarily occupied territories and on the line of collision. Methods of
synthesis and forecasting are used in the formulation of the conclusions to
this article. In general, the above mentioned methodology contributed to
the complex analysis of the problem and the formation of the results which
have theoretical and practical signicance.
3. Results and discussion
From the beginning of the conict, it became clear that the problem of
systematic violations of fundamental human rights in the area of hostilities
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Protection of property rights of citizens in the conditions of foreign military aggression: political
and legal experience of Ukraine
poses an enormous threat to the normal functioning of the authorities and
public institutions. The neglect of pro-Russian mercenaries of elementary
standards of treating people and their property in conditions of an armed
conict and the principle of humanism has once again demonstrated
the whole threat to the situation (Ostapenko, 2017). As a result, at the
legislative level, the state authorities begin to form the basis of the policy of
protecting the rights of internally displaced persons and those who, due to
certain circumstances, remained in the temporarily occupied territories of
the Donbas and Crimea. At that time, the key legislative acts were:
- Law of Ukraine of April 15, 2014 “On ensuring the rights and freedoms
of citizens and legal regime in the temporarily occupied territory”
(On ensuring the rights and freedoms of citizens and legal regime
in the temporarily occupied territory, 2014). This document became
the main guarantee of the protection of the rights and freedoms of
Ukrainian citizens who at the time of annexation lived in the Crimea,
including property rights. Thus, this law consolidated the exclusive
right of the state, individuals and legal entities to property, including
land in the temporarily occupied territory, regardless of whether
they left the territory or not. An additional guarantee was also the
establishment of the principle of legitimacy of the acquisition and
termination of ownership of this property, exclusively in accordance
with the procedure established by the legislation of Ukraine. In other
words, the state not only disapproved the annexation of territories,
but also clearly outlined its priorities in temporarily occupied
territories, including the protection of property rights;
- The Law of Ukraine of September 2, 2014 on “On Interim Measures
for the Period of the Anti-Terrorist Operation” (On interim measures
for the period of the anti-terrorist operation, 2014). Several important
aspects are identied in this legal act. In particular, the authorized
right of using by economic entities the property transferred to them
in the course of movement from temporarily occupied territories.
It should also be noted that there has been implemented the
formalization of the right of an individual to open inheritance not
at the place of the property, that is, in the occupied territory, but
at the place of submission of the corresponding application on the
controlled territory of Ukraine. This contributed to the removal of
obstacles to the implementation of inherited property rights;
- Law of Ukraine of October 20, 2014 “On ensuring the rights and
freedoms of internally displaced persons” (On ensuring the rights
and freedoms of internally displaced persons, 2014). In essence, this
law outlined the status of a new category of citizens of Ukraine – an
internally displaced person. Among other norms, it is important to
establish a moratorium on the repayment of the principal amount
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of mortgage and accrued interest in the event the property is located
on a temporarily occupied territory. It is quite fundamental that the
stated law declares the principle of state participation in the process
of restoration and further protection of the rights of settlers, in
particular those owning the property;
- Statement of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of April 21, 2015 “On
the Resistance to the Armed Aggression of the Russian Federation
and Overcoming Its Consequences” (On the Suppression of
Armed Aggression of the Russian Federation and Overcoming its
Consequences, 2015). This document was primarily of political
and legal signicance, since the Parliament of Ukraine condemned
the foreign military aggression, paying attention to its negative
consequences, in particular, of property character. Thus, they
focused their attention on the problem of appropriating the property
of the state and citizens, the destruction and theft of this property, its
illegal nationalization, and large-scale damage. We believe that this
is a rather important stage in the further resolution of the conict
and establishing guilty persons who must necessarily be held liable
for the criminal acts;
- Law of Ukraine of June 12, 2015 “On the Legal Framework of Military
Status” (On the Legal Regime of Military Status, 2015). The importance
of this document was that the principle of full compensation of the
value of forcibly alienated property was established. That is, in case
of using the property of individuals for the needs of the Armed Forces
of Ukraine, its value in the future should be compensated by the
state. In addition, the law established the principle of compensation
for property losses incurred during the military state. These are quite
signicant guarantees for citizens of Ukraine which indicate that the
state does not relinquish responsibility for the property consequences
of an armed conict.
It should be emphasized that the protection of property rights of citizens
in the conditions of external military aggression requires the activation of
rule-making at the level of by-laws as well, because at this very level there
is detailed elaboration of legislation norms. The executive power is also
responsible for implementing the state policy in the human rights sphere.
In view of this, the following sub-legal acts that were adopted as part of
developing the system of guarantees of property rights protection can be
cited:
- Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated October
31, 2012 “Some issues of full compensation for property forcibly
alienated under the legal regime of military or state of emergency”
(Some issues of full compensation for property forcibly alienated
under the conditions of the legal regime of martial law or the state
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Filatov Viktor, Sergey Нerasymchuk, Oksana Zuieva, Oksana Tuieva y Dmytrо Kartsyhin
Protection of property rights of citizens in the conditions of foreign military aggression: political
and legal experience of Ukraine
of emergency, 2012). The document contains the appropriate
guarantees of compensation for the value of destroyed property,
but only in a wartime situation. In Ukraine, such a situation was
introduced only for a short time, and only when the active phase of
armed confrontation ended. That is, the reimbursement mechanism
was not an eective means of protecting property rights;
- Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated October 1,
2014 “On Approval of the Procedure of Using the Funds Received
from Individuals and Legal Persons to Provide One-Time Cash
Assistance to Victims and Internally Displaced Persons” (On Approval
of the Procedure for Using the Funds Received from Individuals and
Legal Persons to Provide One-Time Cash Assistance to Victims and
Internally Displaced Persons, 2014). The document contains certain
guarantees for settlers, including one-time monetary compensation.
Nevertheless, this is not enough to solve housing problems, since
there is only money to meet the individual needs of everyday life;
- Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated October 1,
2014 “On the provision of monthly targeted assistance to internally
displaced persons to cover residential expenses, including housing
and communal services” (About the provision of monthly targeted
assistance to internally displaced persons to cover the cost of living,
including for payment of housing and communal services, 2014). The
funds that migrants receive under this decree are mainly directed
towards the payment of utilities.
Moreover, there are many cases of refusal to pay such assistance which
is mainly due to the unequal interpretation of the rules of law. For instance,
a retired pensioner may be refused on the grounds that she lives in a son’s
home, and hence belongs to his family. Although, according to the Family
Code of Ukraine, a single person is an independent family;
- Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated November 7,
2014 “On approval of the list of settlements on the territory which the
state authorities temporarily do not exercise their powers over and
the list of settlements located on the line of collision” (On approval of
the list of settlements on the territory of which the state authorities
temporarily do not exercise their powers and the list of settlements
located on the line of collision, 2014). This document is a prerequisite
for establishing a causal link between the destroyed property and
the armed conict. However, in the absence of legal compensatory
mechanisms, it is not able to promote the property rights protection
of inhabitants of the occupied territories;
- The Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated April 18,
2018, entitled “Providing housing for internally displaced persons
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who defended Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial
integrity” (The issue of providing housing for internally displaced
persons who defended the independence, sovereignty and territorial
integrity of Ukraine, 2018). This decree is a suciently eective means
of protecting property rights, in particular the right for housing, but
only of those settlers who joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine and
with arms in their hands defended Ukraine’s independence. The
document introduces a mechanism for allocating subventions from
the state budget for estate purchase for such persons in the territory
under the control of Ukraine.
It should be noted that at the subordinate level there are also no eective
mechanisms for ensuring the protection of property rights of citizens in
conditions of an armed conict. It negatively aects not only the socio-
political situation of internally displaced persons. The fact is that due to such
a policy, the state increases the social alienation of migrants in Ukrainian
society and their mistrust in the state power. One of the reasons for such a
situation not long ago was the lack of a clear position of Ukraine regarding
the position of the aggressor state at the legislative level. As a result, the
responsibility for violated property rights of citizens in conditions of the
armed conict was not held, because the subject that should compensate
harm caused to people was unknown.
A positive step in solving this problem was the Law of Ukraine dated
January 18, 2018, “On the peculiarities of the state policy to ensure the state
sovereignty of Ukraine in temporarily occupied territories in the Donetsk
and Luhansk oblasts” (On the peculiarities of the state policy to ensure
the state sovereignty of Ukraine in the temporarily occupied territories in
the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, 2018). The document for the rst time
recognized Russia as an aggressor state. In addition, the law contains
several norms related to the protection of property rights of citizens in the
context of external military aggression. First, the exclusivity of the property
rights of citizens and the state to the property located in the temporarily
occupied territory is enshrined. This allows you to appeal to the disputing
parties regarding the restoration of property rights.
On the other hand, the law contains a norm according to which the
responsibility for material or non-pecuniary damage inicted on Ukraine as
a result of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation is held by Russia,
as well as by self-proclaimed republics in accordance with the principles and
norms of international law. In other words, Ukraine essentially relinquishes
its obligation to compensate property damage caused by an armed conict,
imposing such obligations on the aggressor state. That is, there is a legal
conict. On the one hand, Ukraine recognizes the occupied territories as
its territories, and the citizens who live on them - are citizens of Ukraine,
and on the other hand, it shifts away from the obligation to guarantee the
protection of the property rights of such citizens.
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Protection of property rights of citizens in the conditions of foreign military aggression: political
and legal experience of Ukraine
The situation is also complicated by the imperfection of legal acts of a
strategic nature in the area of protection of migrants’ rights. It should be
noted that the policy aimed at the complex solution of the problems of the
latter, in general, until recently, was situational in nature. That is, there
were separate managerial decisions to overcome this or that problem,
but there was no systematic vision of the situation as a whole. As a result,
politics was ineective, and misunderstandings were only deepening. Only
at the end of 2017, several conceptual documents were adopted. First of all,
we should emphasize the importance “Strategy of integration of internally
displaced persons and implementation of long-term decisions on internal
movement for the period until 2020” (On Approval of the Strategy for the
Integration of Internally Displaced Persons and Implementation of Long-
Term Decisions on Internal Movement for the Period up to 2020, 2017).
This document is quite important, because it contains a mechanism
for protecting property rights of migrants which includes the following
elements: documenting cases of property destruction by creating an
appropriate state register of destroyed property; introducing criteria for
assessing property damage and methods of compensation; restoration
of lost documents conrming ownership; legal aid. Implementation of
this mechanism in accordance with the rules of the strategy requires the
application of a set of regulatory, nancial, credit, tax and other measures.
The result of implementing the planned measures should be the return of
control over the lost property, or in the event of its destruction - the receipt
of appropriate compensation. At present, the rules of this strategy are being
implemented quite slowly and for the most part remain declarative.
It should be noted that the above-mentioned problems are accompanied
by the lack of practical development of applying the norms of international
humanitarian law in Ukraine. The state was not ready for external
military aggression, and as a result, it did not ensure the ratication of key
international legal instruments protecting the property rights of citizens
in conditions of an armed conict. In addition, the issue of status and
guarantees for such persons very often become the subject of political
speculation in the Ukrainian parliament. For example, for several years in
the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine there have been bills “On compensation for
damage caused by a terrorist act” and “On compensation for damage caused
to citizens by a terrorist act and as a result of an anti-terrorist operation”.
Adoption of these laws would enable to solve the problem of protecting
property rights of citizens in conditions of external military aggression.
This delay in the adoption is due to the reluctance of the state to bear the
burden of compensation for property damage (Kolisnyk, 2019).
The problems of legislation described above are quite clearly disclosed
at the level of practical cases. In this article, I would like to dwell on the
case, which is tackled by lawyers of the Public organization Sich Human
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Rights Group (Dnipro). It is related to the protection of property rights
of an internally displaced person, in particular compensation for reduced
accommodation during hostilities. The essence of the case is that the person
who lived in the city of Shakhtarsk in the Donetsk oblast, with the help of
human rights activists, appealed to the court with a claim for compensation
for material damage caused by Ukraine. The plainti’s house was destroyed
during city bombings in August 2014. At that time, the city of Shahtarsk
was in an uncontrolled territory of Ukraine. No rescue service has left the
city on re; so many homes have simply been burned down. In addition, the
plainti does not have documents that conrm the fact of the destruction of
housing. After these events, the person turned to the police which opened
the criminal proceeding. The plainti believes that there was a crime, in
particular a terrorist act that caused signicant damage to the property of
an individual.
Moreover, the state of Ukraine, in the person of the Cabinet of Ministers
of Ukraine, should bear responsibility for this crime, because according
to the legislation, the authorities are responsible for carrying out the
antiterrorist operation. In her claims, the person demanded to reimburse
her the cost of the lost housing. However, given the lack of mechanisms to
compensate for damage caused by an armed conict, as already mentioned
above, the court of rst instance refused the person to comply with her
claim, referring to the fact that the cause-eect relationship between the
anti-terrorist operation and the destruction of the plainti’s home was not
proved in court. This decision was also taken as a result of the retaliation for
the consequences of the armed conict (Leheza et al., 2020).
Subsequently, the Person decided to appeal this decision to the appellate
court, but the court upheld the decision as it did not nd a violation of the
substantive law. The court also expressed its position on the ungrounded
claims of the plainti in the part of the evidence provided, which conrms
the fault of the state of Ukraine. This situation arose from the fact that the
state of Ukraine on the legislative level has obligated to indemnify property
damage to the aggressor state. Having withdrawn personal responsibility,
Ukraine essentially put judicial practice at a standstill, because the court is
not able to make a decision in favor of the victims.
It should be noted that the problem is also complicated by the non-
recognition by Ukraine of documents issued by the authorities of self-
proclaimed republics. For example, in similar situations in uncontrolled
territories, such bodies compose acts of property destruction which in the
future Ukrainian courts do not recognize as evidence. Moreover, the state
has not developed an alternative system of xing the consequences of an
armed conict.
Occasionally absolutely unique situations arise when an internally
displaced person who defended the territorial integrity of Ukraine with
208
Filatov Viktor, Sergey Нerasymchuk, Oksana Zuieva, Oksana Tuieva y Dmytrо Kartsyhin
Protection of property rights of citizens in the conditions of foreign military aggression: political
and legal experience of Ukraine
arms in the hands is asked to go to the temporarily occupied territory in
order to obtain a documentary proof of ownership. For such a person, it
means captivity and condemnation by militants. At present, human rights
activists have sent a cassation appeal to the Supreme Court of Ukraine and
demand the claim satisfaction and full compensation for the damage. In
case of a negative decision, the next step will be to le a complaint with the
European Court of Human Rights.
It can be noted that the imperfection of legislation in the area of the
status of victims of armed conicts actually makes it impossible to protect
their property rights. The indicated case is just a separate example that
demonstrates it. Due to the imperfection of the legislation, the development
of the relevant judicial practice is also hindering, which negatively aects
the reputation of the judicial system as a whole (Leheza et al., 2018).
Conclusions
Having systematized theoretical and practical aspects of the problem of
protection of citizens’ property rights in the conditions of external military
aggression, we can propose the following ways of its solution:
- implementation of international humanitarian law (will increase the
eectiveness of legal regulation of the status of victims of an armed
conict).
- аdoption of a separate legislative act on the status of displaced
persons and persons who have suered as a result of terrorist activity
and military aggression (will contribute to the elaboration of methods
and forms to restore property rights).
- the introduction of clear and understandable criteria for assessing
the property damage caused by an armed conict (on the basis of
which it will be possible to develop a mechanism for establishing
causal links between loss of property and an armed conict and a
mechanism for compensation for such damage).
- elaboration and approval of a clear action plan within the framework
of the Strategy for the Integration of Internally Displaced Persons
(will allow to organize and coordinate the activities of executive
authorities in implementing the state policy in the sphere of
immigrants),
- establishing constructive cooperation with victims of an armed
conict and social protection bodies of the population (will allow to
hardwire the interests of society and government).
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CUESTIONES POLÍTICAS
Vol. 39 Nº 69 (Julio - Diciembre 2021): 198-211
- depolarization of initiatives related to the status of victims of an
armed conict (will increase the authority of the authorities and
weaken the social tension in Ukrainian society).
The problem of protecting property rights of citizens in the face of
external military aggression is rather topical for the modern Ukrainian
state. Since the beginning of the conict in the east of Ukraine and the
annexation of the Crimean peninsula, several years have passed, however,
the state has not succeeded in building eective protection policies for
the aected victims. This problem is relevant for the author of this article
as well, since he is an internally displaced person himself and knows this
situation perfectly. Today, several preconditions for the existence of this
problem can be identied: political (the reluctance of the authorities to
globally solve the problems of settlers); socio-economic (lack of nancial
resources to form a fund for compensation for property damage of the
victims); organizational (lack of experience in the conditions of temporary
occupation of territories); legal (imperfection of legislation and undeveloped
legal practice); ideological (social alienation of immigrants which prevents
defending their own rights and legitimate interests). Taken together, these
preconditions led to a situation in which the aected person almost in most
cases remains on their own with their problems, which is unacceptable in
a social, legal state. However, recent government decisions and trends in
practice provide grounds to assure that in the coming years this problem
can be solved.
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Esta revista fue editada en formato digital y publicada
en julio de 2021, por el Fondo Editorial Serbiluz,
Universidad del Zulia. Maracaibo-Venezuela
Vol.39 Nº 69