The Ministry for the Development of Communities and Territories has formed the Commission that will decide on the payment of one-off financial assistance to those affected by Russia's aggression — without a public announcement of the competition. The page with the supposedly published call for nominations exists only via a direct link; it cannot be found in the "News" section of the Ministry of Development's official website. In effect, only those to whom the Ministry sent a direct link had real access to information about the competition.

This concerns the interdepartmental Commission established by Resolution No. 1775 of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine of 24 December 2025. It is this Commission that will review applications from those affected and decide whether to grant or refuse the payment.

The Association of Relatives of Political Prisoners of the Kremlin has filed complaints demanding that the selection results be cancelled, that the circumstances surrounding the publication of the announcement be investigated, and that a new, open competition be held. The complaints have been sent to the Ministry of Development, the Cabinet of Ministers, and the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights.

Why this matters

Resolution No. 1775 of the Cabinet of Ministers of 24 December 2025 provides for a one-off financial payment to civilians who were deprived of personal liberty as a result of Russia's aggression. The interdepartmental Commission under the Ministry of Development is meant to review applications and decide whether to grant or refuse the payment. Its membership is to include representatives of state bodies and up to five representatives of civil society organisations.

It is the decisions of this Commission's members that will directly determine whether a specific person affected receives the payment that the law provides for. That makes the question of who joins the Commission, and through what procedure, a matter of principle.

What we found

On 17 April 2026, ОРПК sent an information request to the Ministry of Development with direct questions: had the competition been announced; where could it be found; what documents had to be submitted; and what criteria applied to the selection of civil society candidates.

In its reply of 23 April, the Ministry of Development stated that the call for nominations had been "published," and included a direct link to the relevant page on its website.

The page does indeed open via the link. But in the "News" section of the Ministry of Development's official website — even when filtered by the stated publication date of 12 January 2026 — this announcement is nowhere to be found. The news item exists as a standalone URL, but is invisible to visitors of the site.

In other words, it was impossible to find information about the competition via the homepage or the "News" section of the site. Access was available only to those to whom the Ministry sent a direct link. Video evidence of this discrepancy has been attached to the complaints.

The announcement on the site sets out no terms of the competition

A separate problem is the content of the announcement that the Ministry of Development is pointing to. It sets out no terms of the competition: who is eligible to put forward candidates, the timeframes for their consideration, who decides and on what criteria, on what grounds and through which channels the decision will be made public. Even those to whom the Ministry sent the link individually had no real way to understand the procedure of the competition.

A transparent competition is not the bare fact of an announcement. It is an approved procedure with fair rules, equally clear to every participant. The Ministry of Development has none of this.

They had a ready draft — and chose a different path

The Ministry of Development had everything it needed for a transparent competition. Back in September 2025, ОРПК submitted to the Ministry a fully drafted Procedure for the Competitive Selection of Civil Society Representatives — including an open call, competence-based criteria, and a transparent evaluation procedure. The organisation set out the same recommendations in the final report of its public expert review, which the Ministry of Development, by an order of 31 December 2025, formally recognised as well-grounded.

No substantive written response to the draft ever followed. Instead, the Ministry moved to form the Commission — with no approved transparent procedure, no visible announcement, and no published criteria.

Our demands

In the complaints to the Ministry of Development, the Cabinet of Ministers, and the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, we set out the following demands:

➤ suspend the approval of the personal composition of the Commission until the inquiry is complete;

➤ investigate the circumstances surrounding the publication of the announcement, including the technical logs of the website's content management system;

➤ recognise the selection procedure as conducted in breach of the principles of openness, equal access, and proper administrative procedure;

➤ cancel its results;➤ hold the responsible officials accountable;

➤ announce a new — genuine, open, and transparent — competition, with a publicly placed call, clear selection criteria, and a defined deadline for the submission of documents.

Transparency is not a procedural formality

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