Albania approves mechanism to compensate around 65,000 cases of damage in Ukraine

Justice Minister Toni Gogu today called on lawmakers during the plenary session to ratify the Convention establishing an International Claims Commission for Ukraine.

Approval of the convention makes Albania the tenth country to ratify the mechanism, while ratification by 25 countries is required for it to enter into force.

Gogu said that around 65,000 claims have been submitted to the Register of Damage. They will be reviewed by the Commission, which will also determine the amount of compensation.

“Damage that is merely recorded remains a memory. Damage that is assessed and compensated becomes justice,” the minister stated.

He also explained that Albania will make an annual financial contribution, an amount that may subsequently be claimed from the Russian Federation.

During his speech, the minister also addressed the first-instance judgment handed down yesterday in The Hague by the Specialist Chambers against four former KLA leaders. According to him, the decision was received “with deep disappointment.”

Emphasizing that an appeal is the proper avenue for challenging the decision, Gogu stressed that the KLA’s war “was a war of liberation, just and necessary.”

“We do not support international justice only when we like its decisions. But neither do we remain silent when they disappoint us,” he said.