{"id":31636,"date":"2026-10-19T19:51:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T16:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ldn.org.ua\/?post_type=event&p=31636"},"modified":"2026-10-19T19:51:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T16:51:14","slug":"legal-needs-of-de-occupied-communities-in-the-south-q3-2026-link-data","status":"publish","type":"event","link":"https:\/\/ldn.org.ua\/en\/event\/legal-needs-of-de-occupied-communities-in-the-south-q3-2026-link-data\/","title":{"rendered":"Legal Needs of De-occupied Communities in the South: Q3 2026 LINK Data"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In July\u2013September 2026, residents of de-occupied communities in Kherson and Mykolaiv oblasts turned to LINK lawyers 129 times, twice as often as in the previous quarter. Nearly half of the requests were directly linked to the consequences of the war, and one in four concerned the International Register of Damage.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since 2024, the Legal Development Network has implemented the legal component of the LINK mechanism in partnership with the Czech humanitarian organisation People in Need, with funding from the UK Government. Humanitarian response lawyers travel to de-occupied communities in Mykolaiv and Kherson oblasts and provide people with legal information to help them solve their legal problems. When that is not enough, the lawyers refer the person to a partner organisation and accompany both the person and the partner all the way through. When a certificate or document is needed, residents are directed to the relevant government agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 11 September, LINK lawyers held legal awareness sessions in Khrystoforivka in Bashtanka community and in Kaluha in Bereznehuvate community. After the meetings, 18 people asked for help submitting claims to the International Register of Damage, so that they could later receive compensation for harm caused by the Russian Federation\u2019s aggression. Most of them were pensioners and internally displaced persons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Filling in such a claim alone is difficult: you need to choose the damage category, gather evidence and submit the claim through digital services. The same day, the lawyers referred all 18 requests to a partner, the Skhid-SOS charitable foundation, and continued to accompany both the people and the partner. By 28 September, the foundation had already submitted claims for ten residents of Khrystoforivka. The claims of eight residents of Kaluha are still in progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third quarter confirmed a growing trend: people are increasingly looking for ways to document and seek compensation for war-related losses. The need often surfaces when a lawyer comes to the community in person. And complex cases are resolved faster when a partner is on hand, ready to take them on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Q3 2026, three LINK lawyers received 129 requests from 21 settlements in 12 communities. In every case, the person received legal information on their issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mykolaiv Oblast saw more requests every month, Kherson Oblast fewer after July<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After a dip in Q2 (65 requests), the number of requests rose again. However, it has not yet returned to the level of Q3 2025, when the lawyers received 191 requests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mykolaiv Oblast<\/strong> accounted for 77 requests, 2.3 times more than in Q2. The number grew every month: 21 in July, 27 in August and 29 in September. Residents of Bashtanka (21 requests), Snihurivka (17) and Inhulka (4) communities, who had not contacted the lawyers in Q2, came back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kherson Oblast<\/strong> accounted for 52 requests, 63% more than in Q2. More than half of them (30) came from Chornobaivka community, mainly from Kyselivka and Posad-Pokrovske. After a six-month break, the lawyers worked in Vysokopillia community again: 13 requests, 12 of them from Arkhanhelske. From August onwards, however, there were fewer visits because of heightened security risks in de-occupied communities, and the number of requests fell too, since legal aid reaches people only when lawyers visit their communities. There were 35 requests in July, 10 in August and 7 in September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who seeks legal aid<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The client profile has barely changed: 79% of requests came from women and 46% from people aged 60 and over. Over the entire period of the legal component, these shares were 80.5% and 50.1%. As before, the largest group was pensioners (47 requests), followed by internally displaced persons (30).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Q3, veterans and their family members turned to the lawyers noticeably more often: 29 requests, compared with nine in Q2. Among them were mothers of fallen soldiers, wives and grandmothers of missing soldiers, and veterans with disabilities. In Kherson Oblast, the share of men rose markedly, to 27% of requests compared with 13% in Q2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What people asked about: the Register of Damage, destroyed homes and the loss of loved ones<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Of the 129 requests, 54 (42%) were directly linked to the consequences of the war. Of these, 33 concerned the International Register of Damage, 16 damaged or destroyed housing and property, and five the death or disappearance of loved ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The International Register of Damage became the main topic.<\/strong> In Q2 people asked about it eight times, in Q3 33 times. Of these requests, 27 came from Mykolaiv Oblast and six from Chornobaivka community in Kherson Oblast. People asked who can submit a claim, under which category and with what evidence: for forced displacement, a destroyed home or the loss of loved ones. At the Mykolaiv office, four displaced women from Zaliznyi Port in Kherson Oblast came with this question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The house is there, but the ownership right is not in the register.<\/strong> Sixteen requests concerned damaged or destroyed property. People often cannot report the destruction or receive compensation because their ownership right is not recorded in the State Register of Real Property Rights. In Kyselivka, a displaced woman could not report her destroyed house through Diia: she acquired it before marriage, later changed her surname, and the system does not recognise her ownership. Another displaced woman lived in a house in Bilozerka that was damaged by shelling, but does not know who owns it. The second most frequent topic was inheritance: 22 requests, compared with 12 in Q2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Death and captivity still have to be proven on paper.<\/strong> In early September, a woman approached a LINK lawyer in Novooleksandrivka, Inhulka community. Her husband had been listed as missing in Donetsk Oblast since January 2023. Later, his fellow soldiers told her he had been killed under the rubble of a building near Vodiane. They did not have time to recover his body because Russian troops entered the building. Without a body there is no death certificate, and both the payments and the status of a fallen soldier\u2019s family depend on it. The only way forward is through the courts, where the sole evidence will be the testimony of his fellow soldiers. The lawyer explained which documents to collect and who could testify, and on 11 September referred the case to the Skhid-SOS foundation. By the end of September, the foundation had sent inquiries to the military unit, the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, the territorial recruitment centre, the Red Cross and the UN, and was preparing to file an application with the Security Service of Ukraine. LINK continues to accompany the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Novopetrivka, Shyroke community, a man who survived unlawful detention and torture by the occupiers in 2022 wants to establish the fact of his deprivation of liberty and document the harm in the Register of Damage. According to him, he is the only one of the villagers detained with him who survived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

49 requests (38%) required more than legal information. Over the quarter, LINK lawyers referred 33 requests to civil society and international organisations, twice as many as in Q2. A referral in LINK is more than passing on a contact: the lawyers accompany both the person and the partner all the way to resolving the problem. A further 18 people were directed to government agencies and notaries for a certificate, a document or a registration action: the Pension Fund, the Bureau of Technical Inventory, the State Migration Service, local self-government bodies and others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The quarter\u2019s main partner was the Skhid-SOS foundation, with 20 cases, mostly concerning the Register of Damage and establishing the fate of missing persons. Several cases went to NRC and DRC (three to four each), the NGO Ya \u2014 Kherson, the Right to Protection charitable foundation, the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union reception office in Kherson and the NGO Southern Development Strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Results by the end of September:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • Technical documentation paid for by a partner.<\/strong> A resident of Kobzartsi in Snihurivka community, Mykolaiv Oblast, could not register his house in the state register or formalise his land. DRC took on the case and is covering the cost of the technical documentation, which is now being prepared.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • A lawsuit.<\/strong> A resident of Velykooleksandrivka community in Kherson Oblast gave birth within 10 months of her divorce, and her ex-husband was automatically registered as the child\u2019s father. The NGO Ya \u2014 Kherson prepared and filed a lawsuit, and the hearing is scheduled for 5 November 2026.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • A document after decades of living in Ukraine.<\/strong> A resident of Kalynivske community in Kherson Oblast, who was brought to Ukraine at the age of three months, could not exchange her permanent residence permit. With legal information from the lawyer, she applied to the State Migration Service, and as of September the issuance of her new permit had reached the final stage.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    Not every referral reaches the finish line: some people stop answering calls or decline help. Of the quarter\u2019s 51 referrals to partners and directions to agencies, there were six such cases. Eighteen have been completed, and 21 are still in progress with partners or agencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Conclusions<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Legal needs are increasingly tied to the war.<\/strong> Whereas requests used to centre on inheritance, property and land, in Q3 two new streams were added: documenting damage for the International Register and the concerns of families of fallen and missing soldiers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Legal awareness creates demand.<\/strong> A single meeting in a village can generate dozens of requests if a partner is on hand to accompany people further. The 11 September meetings resulted in 18 requests and ten submitted claims in less than three weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Field visits remain the main channel.<\/strong> The lawyers received 95 of the 129 requests during field visits. When there are fewer visits, as in Kherson Oblast in August and September, there are fewer requests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Housing documents still decide whether a person receives compensation.<\/strong> As in previous periods, people cannot benefit from state programmes because of rights not entered in the registers, lost documents or unfinished inheritance proceedings. Where a partner covers the cost of technical documentation, cases move forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    About the data. The analysis is based on the LINK legal component\u2019s CRM system of requests for 1 July \u2013 22 September 2026. Requests concerning the International Register of Damage and requests related to the consequences of the war were identified by the content of the request rather than by area of law, as the register assigns such requests to different areas of law. Referrals were counted by referral date. Client stories are presented without names, based on the LINK database.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This material was prepared by the Legal Development Network in cooperation with the Czech humanitarian organisation People in Need, with financial support from the UK Government, as part of the HAVEN project (Humanitarian Action through Volunteers, Enablers, and Networks).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The interpretation of LINK data belongs to the authors of this material and does not necessarily reflect the views of the partners or the donor.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In July\u2013September 2026, residents of de-occupied communities in Kherson and Mykolaiv oblasts turned to LINK lawyers 129 times, twice as often as in the previous quarter. Nearly half of the requests were directly linked to the consequences of the war,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":31632,"template":"","project":[],"section":[],"event-type":[],"region":[],"class_list":["post-31636","event","type-event","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t