Link legal component as a tool to improve access to legal aid in de-occupied communities
Publication date: January 24, 2025
Author: Halyna Kolesnyk, Head of the Communication Cluster of the Legal Development Network
In mid-January 2025, the Legal Development Network (LDN) presented the developments of the legal component of the Link local humanitarian response coordination mechanism. This component was launched by LDN in 2024 in partnership with the Czech humanitarian organization Person in Need and with funding from the UK government.
During the first year of Link’s humanitarian work, community representatives received requests for legal support. It turned out that there was a significant gap in the provision of legal services on the ground. Therefore, the following year, borrowing some principles of the humanitarian component, we developed the legal direction of the mechanism.
“Community members do not always identify the need for legal aid and can say, ‘Yes, I need a lawyer. However, later, in the process of communication, when we identified humanitarian needs, we realized that people also need legal support ,” says Olga Nastina, executive director of the Legal Development Network.
Identification of legal needs: from unnoticed to unconscious
“Many legal aid providers and international organizations visit the settlements, but not everywhere is possible to get there, not everywhere security policies allow. Indeed, there is a certain challenge that many legal needs remain unnoticed and unresolved,” said Daria Kovalchuk, Legal Services Manager of the Legal Development Network.
In addition to the obvious legal problems, the Link team faced the phenomenon of unrecognized needs.
“When you arrive and ask a person if they have a specific legal problem. You hear in response that they do not. You start talking and in the course of this conversation you realize that there is a problem, but because of ignorance it is difficult to identify that it is really a legal problem,” says Daria Kovalchuk.

The legal services manager emphasizes the importance of identifying legal problems in a timely manner, because if the process of solving the problem is delayed, negative consequences arise, the problem becomes more acute and may not be resolved.
“We did not want to duplicate the activities of organizations that provide legal services. Our goal is to identify such needs and pass them on to our partners to address them,” emphasizes Daria Kovalchuk.
The focus of the legal component of Link:
- Identification and verification of legal requests from community residents
- Visits to the most remote settlements of de-occupied communities
- Interviewing people in detail about their needs
- Referrals and referrals to legal aid providers
- Search for partner organizations to address specific issues
- Collecting feedback from beneficiaries and partners.
Link uses two types of referrals for legal aid: referrals and references. Link’s humanitarian response lawyer Yaroslava Sulimova explains the difference.
Referral means first finding an organization that is ready to take on a legal problem. It is important that those who need help should be ready to communicate closely with the organization to resolve their issue. Link specialists take consent from both parties, redirect and accompany community members until the issue is resolved, supporting them all the way.
“Referral is, in fact, a referral of a person to government agencies. If we realize that a person, for example, just needs to go to a notary to resolve their issues, we refer them to one. In more complicated cases, for example, when people face prejudice from representatives of state institutions, etc., we find an organization that can accompany the person further,” says Yaroslava Sulimova.
Since May 2024, the Link team has identified 140 legal requests that went unnoticed by legal service providers or were not satisfied for some reason. Behind this statistic is a thorough work on planning visits, communication with communities and coordination with partners, and comprehensive support of people at all stages of solving their problems.
Link is actively expanding its network of partner organizations. It is important that assistance can be provided in cooperation with several organizations.
“We can make referrals not only to one organization, but also to several, where one organization can, for example, write a lawsuit and help with filing it, and another can cover the cost of paying the court fee,” explains Daria Kovalchuk, legal services manager .
Approaches for partnership
The legal component of Link cooperates with organizations and government agencies that provide legal aid in Mykolaiv and Kherson regions. In order to qualitatively include them in the referrals, specialists learn about the list of issues that the organization works with, the possibilities of financial support (payment of court fees, preparation of documentation), contacts and work schedule, and the possibility of traveling to the settlements.
One of the partners to whom Link’s legal component refers is the free legal aid (FLA) system. Olena Ipatenko, deputy director of the Southern Interregional Center for Free Legal Aid, explains the specifics of the center’s work, which covers four regions: Mykolaiv, Kherson, Kirovohrad, and Odesa regions.
“We are a state institution that was created to cover the legal needs of people free of charge for them, but at the expense of the budget,” emphasizes Olena Ipatenko.
The FLA system provides two types of services:
- Primary legal aid – consultations, clarification of legal issues, to which all community residents are entitled free of charge, regardless of their income, status, or place of residence.
- Secondary legal aid includes:
- Representation of interests in courts
- Preparation of procedural documents
- Defense in criminal cases.
The full list of those who are entitled to it is provided for in Article 14 of the law on free legal aid, and these are usually the most vulnerable categories, including
- Internally displaced persons
- Victims of domestic violence
- Children and other categories defined by law
Regarding referrals, Olena Ipatenko notes: “We are always happy to receive referrals. After all, despite the advertising campaign, there are still some people who either do not know about legal services that can be obtained free of charge from the state or are afraid because they believe that they will not get anything good for free. It is right and appropriate today to help people get legal services with all our might.”
One of Link’s partners is the NGO “SLC Perspectiva”. The organization provides both primary and secondary legal aid in case of going to court, appealing against the actions of the tax, state executive service or other body in accordance with the appeal. It also provides psychological and other types of assistance.
Cooperation with Link has opened up new opportunities for the organization.
“Although we travel to villages and communicate with people, Link has become an additional tool for us that allows us to work more with the needs of Mykolaiv and Kherson regions,” says Serhiy Vlasenko, lawyer at the NGO “LCC Perspectiva”.
The Right to Protection CF implements programs to provide legal, psychological and material support to internally displaced persons and the population affected by the hostilities, as well as social assistance and monitoring of the protection of rights.
“We got acquainted with the Link platform recently. Such an initiative and such work can be very helpful in my work because I can potentially have more information about the recipient of assistance. Because, in particular, there are cases when a person turns to me as, so to speak, the fifth lawyer, and I need to understand why this happens,” says Iryna Syedina, a lawyer at, a gender-based violence advocate at the Right to Protection CF.
Feedback system
An important part is collecting feedback from both community members and the partner organization to find out whether the Link mechanism helped and whether the problem was solved. If not, the specialists record the information and indicate why the problem could not be solved.
Out of 140 recipients, 57 have already been interviewed. The main obstacles they face:
- Financial difficulties
- Multiple referrals between institutions
- Logistical problems (lack of transportation, high fares)
- Lack of awareness of the legal nature of the problem.
The situation in Mykolaiv region
- In the Shevchenkivska and Halytsynivska communities, most legal needs have been addressed
- In the remote settlements of the Shevchenkivska community, there are still unrecognized and unnoticed needs
- 67.8% of settlements receive legal aid once a month from different legal aid providers
- 28% of settlements are visited by legal aid providers once every 2-3 months.
The situation in Kherson region
- In Velyko Oleksandrivska and Bilozerska communities, there are difficulties in meeting legal needs due to the security situation
- In Muzykivska and Chornobaivska communities, 94.7% of the identified legal needs have been met
- 75% of settlements receive legal aid once a month
- 12% of settlements are visited by representatives of legal organizations three times a month
- 12% of settlements have weekly visits from organizations
Tools for legal education
Link develops human-centered information materials and implements innovative formats of legal education.
“We understand that the material we create for use should be written in the simplest, most understandable language possible, with a clear algorithm of actions: what a person needs to do to solve their problem,” explains Daria Kovalchuk.
The process of creating legal education materials includes:
- Analysis of the Link platform’s query database to identify relevant topics
- Consultations with key informants
- Adaptation of materials for people without legal education
- Constant updating and improvement of the content.
Chatbot with integrated artificial intelligence
Another tool to improve access to legal aid is a chatbot with integrated artificial intelligence.
“Our lawyers have selected the most relevant topics and are currently working on their content. Conventionally, one topic covers more than 30 consultations. In the context of a document, it is more than 150 pages of verified information. The Link chatbot provides only up-to-date information. We are currently testing the chatbot in terms of the relevance of receiving answers to questions from community residents,” explains Daria Kovalchuk.
In addition to the chatbot, community residents can use the online chat, which is supported by lawyers from 22 member organizations of the Legal Development Network.
Plans for the future
Link continues to expand its activities. Darya Kovalchuk, Legal Services Manager of the Legal Development Network, outlines the main areas of development:
“We are going to continue the initiative to collect and verify legal needs in other communities. We plan to reach more settlements that actually need this help the most, but do not have it due to difficult logistics. We will make every effort to reach these communities as well.”
In addition, in 2025, the team will work on developing online tools, including a chatbot, filling it with new topics, and adding the possibility of consulting lawyers.
Another important area is expanding cooperation with other organizations.
“We want to coordinate more with the Protection Cluster. We have already started this cooperation. I am confident that we will be able to strengthen each other and in synergy we will be able to provide as many people as possible with access to legal services and justice,” says Daria Kovalchuk.
In addition, Link’s legal component continues to work with legal awareness, as people need to realize their problems and the need to solve them.
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