First 72 Hours After a Missile Strike on Your Apartment: Documents and Action Plan

The strike came at night, or just before dawn. Your apartment is full of broken glass, smoke, collapsed walls. And right now — in that moment — you need to think about paperwork. Unfair? Absolutely. But those first 72 hours determine whether you get compensated or not.

Insurance companies and government agencies work with evidence, not memories. And evidence has a shelf life — cleanup crews, neighbors, and utility workers will destroy part of it within 24 hours. So: phone camera first, everything else second.

# First 2 Hours: Safety and Documentation Before Cleanup

Shoot everything — right now, before emergency responders move in. This is the only moment the damage picture is untouched.

But safety first. Don’t enter a building without clearance from Ukraine’s State Emergency Service (SESU/ДСНС) if there’s any risk of structural collapse or gas leak. If you’ve already been evacuated, ask the responders to photograph the apartment immediately — explain that you need it for insurance. Most SESU crews understand this and will help.

What to shoot and how:

Turn on geotagging before you start. On iPhone: Settings → Privacy → Location Services → Camera → While Using. On Android, enable it in your camera settings. Geotags tie each photo to the address — that’s evidence your insurer can’t dismiss.

• Wide shots of every room — from the doorway, then diagonally across
• Every gap, crack, and collapse — close-up, with a coin or ruler for scale
• Structural damage: walls, ceilings, load-bearing columns
• Damaged property: furniture, appliances, documents
• The front door and locks — if blown out
• Neighboring apartments where visible — this establishes the scale of the strike
• Timestamps on every photo (most cameras write these automatically)

Record continuous video, narrating out loud: “This is the kitchen — the wall is destroyed, you can see the street.” Your voice describing what you see is an additional layer of evidence.

Then — upload everything to the cloud immediately. Google Photos, iCloud, Dropbox. Phones get lost, broken, seized. Cloud storage doesn’t.

# Hours 2–8: Calling Your Insurer and Police

Notify your insurer as early as possible. Most Ukrainian policies require notification within 3–5 business days of the insured event. Miss that window and your insurer has a formal basis to deny the claim. And they use it.

How to notify:

1. Call the insurer’s hotline. Give your policy number, address, and the date and time of the strike. Write down the operator’s name and the time of your call.
2. Send written notification — email to the insurer with the subject line “Notice of Insured Event, Policy №XXX.” Save the sent copy.
3. If the insurer’s office is operational, submit the notice in person and get a stamped acknowledgment — incoming number, date, signature.

At the same time, call the police (102) or SESU (101). They issue a certificate confirming the fact of the shelling. Without it, your insurer can claim the insured event was never officially verified. That certificate isn’t a formality — it’s evidence.

And: SESU prepares its own call-out report. Ask for a copy — the case number, date, and officer’s signature. That’s a second independent document confirming the damage.

# Hours 8–48: The Inspection Report — How to Get It and What to Demand

The inspection report (акт обследования) is the most important document in your entire package. Without it, neither your insurer nor the SPFU will process your claim.

Under Cabinet of Ministers Resolution №473 dated April 21, 2023 (available at zakon.rada.gov.ua), inspections are conducted by an inter-agency commission established by the local hromada (municipality). The commission includes local government representatives, technical experts, and — where needed — specialists from the KTSN (Комунальний центр сервісного надання, a communal service center).

How to start the process:

Submit an application at your local military administration or CNAP service center. Bring your passport and proof of property ownership. Get the incoming registration number for your application.

Simultaneously, file through Diia — the “Пошкоджене майно” (Damaged Property) module. This officially timestamps your request. If the commission drags its feet, you have documented proof that you applied on time.

What the report must include:

• Property address
• Date and time of inspection
• Full commission roster with signatures
• Itemized damage description (structural, interior finishing, property contents)
• Damage classification: partial or total destruction
• Reference to the triggering event (shelling, date)
• Estimated damage value or reference to the calculation methodology

Demand a copy with an official wet stamp — not a scan, not a promise to email it. Take the stamped copy before you leave.

If the commission doesn’t show up:

According to data from human rights organization ZMINA Centre (2024), in some municipalities the wait for an inspection stretched to 3–6 weeks during peak periods. If that happens:

• File a written complaint with the SPFU (spfu.gov.ua), citing your original application date
• File a complaint with the regional military administration
• Contact the Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights (Ukraine’s Ombudsman, ombudsman.gov.ua)

Every complaint should come back with an incoming registration number. That’s your protection against “we never received anything.”

# Hours 48–72: DREAM Registry and Diia Application

DREAM — the Державний реєстр майна (State Property Registry) — is the national database of property damaged or destroyed as a result of the war. It’s operated by the SPFU (State Property Fund of Ukraine). Applications go through Diia or a CNAP service center.

What you need to apply:

• Proof of ownership (certificate or extract from the property registry)
• The inter-agency inspection report
• Photo and video files (uploaded directly in Diia)
• Passport and tax ID (ІПН)
• Police/SESU certificate

Diia automatically cross-references data with the property registry. If your ownership is properly registered, most fields fill in automatically.

One critical point — and Law №2923-IX (zakon.rada.gov.ua) is explicit about this: registering in DREAM does not guarantee an immediate payout. It records the fact of damage and places you in the queue. The actual amount and timeline depend on available state budget funding. That’s the reality — better to know it upfront.

# Apartment Insurance Against Shelling: What a Policy Actually Covers

The honest answer: almost nothing, if you have a standard policy. That’s painful to say, but it’s true.

Standard apartment insurance contracts from Ukrainian insurers — ASKA, ARX, PZU Ukraine, Unika, Ukrainian Insurance Group — all contain an exclusion for “military action, war, armed conflict, terrorist acts.” A missile explosion, shrapnel damage, fire caused by shelling — all of it falls under that exclusion. According to the National Bank of Ukraine (bank.gov.ua, insurance market review 2023–2024), there have been virtually no mass payouts under standard policies for war-related residential damage, for exactly this reason.

What does work:

Specialist war-risk products are rare. MTSBU (Моторне транспортне страхове бюро України — Ukraine’s Motor Insurance Bureau) has been piloting residential insurance products that include war risk coverage for certain property categories since 2022. Terms, premiums, and availability change — check mtsbu.ua for current information.

But here’s what you should do right now — even with a standard policy: notify your insurer on time. Why? Because some policy wordings leave room for interpretation. “Fire” as an insured event, even if the fire was caused by shelling — that’s a question courts or negotiations can resolve. But without timely notification, you forfeit any right to that argument.

# Why Insurers Deny Claims — and How to Prevent It

Three main reasons for denial — and all three are preventable in the first 72 hours.

Reason 1: missed notification deadline. The policyholder notified the insurer 10 days later; the insurer denied the claim. Courts generally side with the insurer when the breach is documented. The fix: notify within the first day, even if you don’t yet know the full extent of the damage. “Damage has occurred, details to follow” is enough for an initial notification.

Reason 2: insufficient documentation. The insurer asks for before-and-after photos — you don’t have a “before.” The fix: keep photos of your apartment in the cloud with dates attached. Even last year’s interior shots. That’s your baseline.

Reason 3: accepting the war exclusion without challenging it. The insurer denied the claim — the policyholder accepted it. That was a mistake. The phrase “military action” has been interpreted differently across Ukrainian courts. According to legal platform Axon Partners (2024), a portion of cases involving insurers’ denial of war-related residential damage ended in the policyholder’s favor — specifically where the proximate cause was ruled to be “fire” or “explosion” rather than the shelling itself. That’s not a guarantee, but it’s a legal argument worth making.

One more thing — don’t sign the insurer’s own inspection report without reading it carefully. The insurer’s representative prepares a separate assessment, parallel to the government one. Any discrepancy in damage estimates will, naturally, favor the insurer. Get a copy, compare it against the commission’s report.

# State Compensation: Amounts, Timelines, and Realistic Expectations

The state does pay. Slowly — but it pays. According to SPFU data from early 2025, the DREAM registry had recorded more than 250,000 damaged and destroyed residential properties. Some owners have already received compensation — primarily for fully destroyed properties through pilot programs.

How the amount is calculated:

Compensation is determined by the damage assessment methodology approved by the SPFU under Law №2923-IX. The methodology accounts for: type of damage (partial or total), property area, and regional construction and repair cost coefficients. The exact figure depends on your specific inspection report — it’s individual. An approximate calculator is available on the SPFU website (spfu.gov.ua), but the final number comes from the commission only.

Realistic timelines:

This is where I’ll be straight with you — don’t expect a payout in 3 months. The mechanism works, but slowly: budget allocation cycles, a long queue, additional verification for larger properties. According to estimates from the Transparency and Accountability Centre (Центр «Прозорість та підзвітність», 2024), the average time from DREAM registration to first payout under pilot programs was 8–14 months.

But that’s not a reason to delay your application. The sooner you’re in the queue, the sooner you’re at the front of it.

Rental housing as a stopgap:

While payouts are pending, the state is obligated to provide temporary housing or compensate rental costs — per Article 14 of Law №2923-IX. This is implemented through local administrations. Go to a CNAP service center right after filing your DREAM application and ask about temporary accommodation assistance.

# Full 72-Hour Checklist

# See Also

• Property Insurance in Ukraine: What a Policy Covers
• Loans and Programs for Post-War Housing Reconstruction
• Deposits and Savings Protection During Wartime
• Ukrainian Banks: Reliability Ratings and Current Terms