
The Lawfare Podcast Lawfare Daily: Reparations for Russia's Aggression Against Ukraine with Markiyan Kliuchkovskyi and Patrick Pearsall
Jul 16, 2025
Markiyan Kliuchkovskyi, Executive Director of the Register of Damage for Ukraine, and Patrick Pearsall, Partner at Gibson Dunn and reparations expert, delve into Ukraine's strategy for seeking reparations from Russia. They discuss how they pitched their innovative reparations mechanism to President Zelensky and international bodies. Key topics include the legal obligations of Russia, the role of frozen assets as funding sources, and the importance of a scalable system for managing claims and compensation. Their insights reveal the complex intersection of law, politics, and global accountability.
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Origin of Reparations Idea
- Markiyan Kliuchkovskyi conceived the reparations mechanism idea while sheltering in a bomb shelter during the early days of the war.
- He reached out to Patrick Pearsall to collaborate, leading to a pitch to President Zelensky and the Ukrainian government.
Damages Registry's Strategic Role
- The damages registry structurally fits both legal and political needs to document ongoing war damage.
- It is designed as a preliminary step, not an adjudicatory process, to maintain momentum and build eventual new law.
Stepwise Reparations Approach
- Break down reparations mechanisms into manageable parts for political and legal buy-in.
- Start small but keep the ultimate goal of a complete compensation system in sight.
