Ivan Prikhodko, the secretary of the Donetsk Republic Public Movement’s local branch, the Head of the Gorlovka City Council, believes that the Ukrainian authorities are obliged to make up for property damage caused to the DPR residents whose houses have been damaged by the AFU shelling.

“The complaint of residents of the nine-story building located on Kolkhozny Avenue in the Kuibyshevsky District of Donetsk to the ECHR demanding that Kiev compensate for losses resulting from the destruction of their housing is logic and justified.

This residential building is well known to me, since at the time when it was fired on I was Head of the Kuibyshevsky District Council and I remember very well how the unfortunate people were left homeless. But throughout the Republic there are thousands of such houses which have sustained damage as a result of the aggression by the armed formations of Ukraine. There are many of them in the frontline Gorlovka, where I am currently working, and in other cities and districts in the near vicinity of the contact line.

Of course, the DPR authorities are trying to provide the homeless people with new housing wherever possible; a gradual restoration of the destroyed infrastructure is ongoing. But it would be fair that Kiev provides compensation for damage to all residents of the Republic who have suffered from the actions of the Ukrainian army.

I hope that the high European court will exercise an objective and impartial approach when deciding on this appeal,” Ivan Prikhodko said.