Due to the war and destruction, many agricultural enterprises were forced to stop working. They lost the opportunity to fulfill their financial obligations, including paying taxes. The same situation happened to the "Havryliuk" enterprise in Kharkiv region. UAC lawyers helped the destroyed enterprise to collect evidence of the losses and the impossibility of paying tax obligations. They help to save preferential lending conditions and, the most important, a chance for recovery.

LCC "Havryliuk" has been working in Kharkiv region for 21 years. 2,200 hectares were cultivated and 8,000 tons of grain were grown per year. But on February 24, the war came to Ukraine and the enterprise was completely stopped. On March 5, as a result of shelling, a fire broke out on the farm and half of its property was burned. Then there were even more challenges, and by the time the village was de-occupied on September 10, there was almost nothing left.

"At the end of February, we sowed 1,600 hectares, and there were 5,000 tons of grain in warehouses. With the first explosions, all 25 workers were forced to leave the enterprise and it stopped working. When we returned to the farm in the fall, we saw complete ruins: administrative buildings and warehouses, office equipment and seeds... - nothing survived. We had a new CLAAS tractor for UAH 11 million, a modern office and own grain quality assessment laboratory. 4 harvesters, 5 tractors, cultivators, planters, a loader, a crane and a truck were also burned. In general, losses of destroyed agricultural machinery and equipment amount to more than UAH 80 million," says Lilia Vysotska, an accountant of the Havryliuk farm.

Other losses are still being calculated. Lawyers of the Ukrainian Agri Council (UAC) with the support of the USAID Agriculture Growing Rural Opportunities Activity (AGRO), help the enterprise to record losses. In the summer  this year, when the farm was still occupied, employees of the "Havryliuk" enterprise called the free consultation line for advice on collecting evidence of destruction caused by military actions. This made it possible to quickly collect and efficiently arrange all the necessary documents.

According to Lilia Vysotska, the webinars regularly held by UAC experts as a part of a joint project with the USAID AGRO Activity helped a lot.

"We started collecting evidence at once. UAC helped us to organize everything correctly and understand the legal logic of fixing losses. For each question, we called specialists and got clarifications. Thanks to this, we correctly submitted a statement to the police, and also submitted an appeal to the civil-military administration to send experts and draw up the relevant protocols," said Lilia Vysotska.

Tax obligations has become another problem. "Havryliuk" as a tax payer of the 4th group, should pay more than UAH 150,000 to the budget every quarter and submit reports to the tax office. But the war stopped the activity of the enterprise, and therefore it lost the ability to fulfill any financial obligations. It was necessary to prove this, because due to non-payment of taxes, the company risked receiving high rates of the state preferential loan.

"Before the full-scale invasion, we used a preferential loan program to replenish working capital at 0%. According to the contract, if the borrower does not pay taxes to the budget, the rate increases to more than 13%. Without the possibility of earning, without equipment, with mined fields, we found ourselves in a difficult situation. It was very important for us to get a tax ruling that we are unable to fulfill our tax obligations. We turned to UAC lawyers and, with their advice, were able to reach a decision within a month regarding the impossibility of paying taxes and reporting. In order to understand the effectiveness of consultations: we are the first in the region who managed to do this, " emphasized the accountant of the "Havryliuk" company.

Therefore, thanks to free professional legal assistance, the farm managed to prepare the necessary documents for the tax authorities on time and retain the opportunity to resume its activities.

And recently, the company's employees have got to know that 20% of the fields survived and are already preparing for spring sowing. The “Havryliuk” company’s story, an enterprise that has survived all the horrors of the occupation is continuing.

We will remind you that the Ukrainian Agri Council and the USAID Agriculture Growing Rural Opportunities Activity (AGRO), have launched a joint project to support the economic recovery of Ukraine’s agricultural sector, which suffered as a result of Russia's military aggression against Ukraine.

The project implements the best international practices in recording war crimes and calculating the losses caused by them. The methodological recommendations for recording crimes were created - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1XDL55-uTEjkq38h0D4GFfYEc2sWi9GsP?hl=ru

Based on the collected information, an evidence database is created to confirm the crimes committed by the Russian Federation against Ukraine.

In the future, the collected evidence base will be used to submit individual applications or to join already existing collective lawsuits in international courts for the purpose of compensation for the damage caused.

At the same time a free consultation line for affected farmers operates. If you have additional questions or need help to fix losses call +38 067 503 19 08.

In addition, since November 2, the Interactive map of the Ukrainian agricultural sector destruction has started working. The portal was created to show real damage to agricultural enterprises caused by Russian aggression. The collected evidence can be used as an example of your own fixation, also the data displayed on the map will help charitable organizations and international investors to get information about the destruction in order to support enterprises in the future.

Agribusinesses can participate in the collection of the evidence base on war crimes at the resource - agrirecovery.com.ua.