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A meeting of the EU–Ukraine Accession Conference on 15 June 2026 in Luxembourg formally opened negotiations on the core principles, covering rule of law, fundamental rights, and democratic institutions, of the country potentially joining the union. In this context, Ukraine’s approach to civilians returning from Russian-occupied territories becomes a direct test of how these principles are applied in practice.
Close to one million civilians remain in Ukrainian territories occupied by the Russian Federation, according to the January 2026 UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) report. These populations are largely cut off from essential services and protective systems, and are exposed to severe movement restrictions and ongoing insecurity.
Despite the scale of displacement and ongoing evacuation, Ukrainian legislation does not yet provide a distinct legal procedure for civilians returning from occupation. This creates a governance gap in screening, rehabilitation, and reintegration that risk being interpreted as human rights violations and may create the perception that the Ukrainian state lacks an adequate framework to facilitate the return of its citizens from occupation.
International Humanitarian and Human Rights Standards
Individuals who have survived Russian occupation have often experienced torture, detention, or prolonged exposure to violence. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) interviewed 278 such civilians. According to the report, published earlier this year, their specific needs are not being met, “since support programs are fragmented, incomplete, and available only to specific groups.”
International humanitarian and human rights standards require states to provide special protection and rehabilitation to victims of torture and prolonged occupation. Article 14 of the UN Convention Against Torture guarantees victims the right to rehabilitation: “Each State Party shall ensure in its legal system that the victim of an act of torture obtains redress and has an enforceable right to fair and adequate compensation, including the means for as full rehabilitation as possible.”
The UN Committee Against Torture further states that rehabilitation must be holistic and include medical and psychological care as well as legal and social services. It further requires that victims have access to rehabilitation “as soon as possible after professional assessment,” and that States establish effective legislative and administrative mechanisms to ensure such rehabilitation in practice in General Comment No. 3 on Article 14, paras. 11, 13, 15.
Ukrainian law guarantees support to some former civilian detainees, including medical and psychological care, financial support, and temporary accommodation, but according to the OHCHR report: “The eligibility criteria, which were established before the full-scale invasion, are restrictive, requiring that applicants prove the Russian Federation deprived them of their liberty for specific reasons, such as their political opinion. A commission takes the decision on eligibility; the process is lengthy.”
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Public Health System Concerns
Ukrainians escaping occupied parts of the Kherson region also suffer severe psychological distress after enduring months of drone and mine attacks, hunger, and the absence of basic services, including water, electricity, gas, heating, communications, and healthcare.
When they are immediately subjected to detention-like conditions or military processing without medical and psychological assessment, their physical and mental health can deteriorate further. Untreated injuries, torture-related trauma, malnutrition, and mental health conditions may become long-term health issues requiring more extensive intervention later.
National Security Considerations
The Russian Federation has inherited Soviet and KGB methods of planting moles and agents of influence within the populations and armed forces of its adversaries.
According to the OHCHR 2026 report, 12% of the surveyed Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from occupied territory reported missing official documents, such as birth certificates and passports. Many could not obtain or renew Ukrainian documents, living under occupation. Such cases are reported in the Russian-occupied Kherson region.
“Ukrainian authorities have not yet implemented a simplified administrative procedure to issue certificates for births and deaths that occurred in occupied territory, even though this is provided for in principle in Ukrainian law,” states the report. “Displaced persons must first obtain a court decision establishing the fact of birth or death, then apply to the civil status registration authorities for the certificate. NGOs providing legal assistance to IDPs reported complicated, delayed procedures and incurred court fees.”
Individuals returning from occupation require time for debriefing, identity verification, and medical assessment. A rehabilitation and screening period would enhance, rather than undermine, national security by allowing authorities to identify both vulnerabilities and potential security risks.
Demographic and Humanitarian Consequences
The lack of a distinctive policy could also have serious demographic consequences. There are already cases in which families choose to remain in occupied territories because of the unclear prospects. Children remain exposed to shelling, drone attacks, humanitarian deprivation, and other dangers associated with life under occupation. If families do evacuate to Ukraine, the prolonged processing increases the economic vulnerability of displaced households.
In an interview with Byline Times, Ievgen Gilin, PhD, a lawyer and head of the NGO Misto Syly, said that the Kherson region in southern Ukraine is a particularly stark example of this legal gap. It was the only region whose entire territory was occupied by Russian forces from March to November 2022. More than 70% of the region remains under Russian occupation today.
“Tens of thousands of Ukrainians live in these occupied territories, according to various estimates,” said Gilin. “Most of them remain as they hope that the occupation will end, just as it did for 30% of the Kherson region in 2022. However, over the past year, more and more people have been deciding to return [to unoccupied Ukraine]. We are hearing the same questions time and again. Is the state waiting for us? What rights will we have upon our return? How can we become part of Ukrainian society again after four and a half years of separation? Unfortunately, we still do not have clear answers for them — and this means that the state is not legally or institutionally prepared to work with these people.”
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Implications for Ukraine’s European Integration
As Ukraine advances toward European Union membership and begins negotiations on the fundamentals cluster, which addresses values, democracy, and the rule of law, the absence of a clear framework for the treatment and rehabilitation of civilians returning from occupation could become a matter of international concern.
OHCHR recommendations for Ukraine included adopting “a new State strategy and implementation plan on internal displacement which takes into account the specific needs and vulnerabilities of persons displaced from occupied territory.”
Ukraine will benefit from establishing a formal procedure for civilians returning from occupied territories. Such a procedure should include a temporary rehabilitation and reintegration period, with full access to legal assistance and social services, before any mobilization decisions are considered.
During this period, returnees could undergo identity verification, document restoration, medical examinations, and mental health assessments. Screening for torture and other serious human rights violations should also be conducted. The collection of witness testimony concerning war crimes would further benefit Ukraine.
A clear rehabilitation and reintegration mechanism would protect national security, strengthen public trust, preserve vital evidence of war crimes, and demonstrate Ukraine’s commitment to the values it seeks to defend and to join in Europe.
On 6 June, Zarina Zabrisky was awarded the Order of Merit by President Zelensky in recognition of her reporting for Byline Times and Euromaidan Press, and for her documentary film, Kherson: Human Safari.