How to establish the fact of death in a combat zone without a medical certificate

A person was killed by shelling in a city where the hospital, the morgue and the civil registry office (DRACS) no longer work. There is no medical death certificate and there will not be one, and without it a death certificate is not issued and an estate file is not opened. Article 317 of the Civil Procedure Code of Ukraine exists for such situations: the court establishes the fact of death, and the application can be filed with any local court in the country. In the case where I represented the granddaughter of the deceased, 17 days passed from the opening of proceedings to the judgment. I explain what evidence we collected, how we proved the family link with three different surnames in one family, and what to do after the judgment.

In brief: 6 key points

• If death occurred in an area under martial law or in a temporarily occupied area, and a medical document of death cannot be obtained, the court establishes the fact of death under Article 317 of the Civil Procedure Code of Ukraine.
• The application can be filed with any local court in Ukraine that administers justice, regardless of where the applicant lives. In my case, the death occurred in Lyman, Donetsk Oblast, and the case was heard by a court in Kharkiv.
• A prior written refusal from the DRACS office is not required: the court relied on explanatory letter No. 985/0/208-21 of 22.04.2021 from the Cassation Civil Court within the Supreme Court.
• A set of evidence replaced the medical certificate: an extract from the Unified Register of Pre-Trial Investigations (ERDR), the police reply to an attorney's request, a photograph from the scene, and copies of the deceased's passport and pension ID.
• The family link had to be proved through a chain of civil status records, because the grandmother, the father and the granddaughter have different surnames. The court obtained one record from the DRACS office on our motion.
• In case No. 645/8976/26, proceedings were opened on 14.09.2026, the judgment was issued on 01.10.2026, and the court allowed its immediate enforcement.

Why a death will not be registered without a court

A death certificate is issued by the civil registry office (the department of state registration of civil status acts), but not on the strength of relatives' words. Article 17 of the Law of Ukraine "On State Registration of Civil Status Acts" names two grounds for registering a death: a document of the established form on the death, issued by a healthcare institution or a forensic medical institution, or a court judgment establishing the fact of a person's death at a certain time or declaring the person dead.

In ordinary life, the first document is the medical death certificate, form No. 106/o. Under the Instruction approved by Order of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine No. 545 of 08.08.2006, it is issued by hospitals, outpatient clinics, pathology bureaus and forensic medical examination bureaus. In a city with active fighting, none of these institutions works.

That leaves the second ground: a court judgment. The Rules of State Registration of Civil Status Acts in Ukraine, approved by Order of the Ministry of Justice No. 52/5 of 18.10.2000, directly list a court judgment establishing the fact of a person's death at a certain time among the grounds for registration.

What Article 317 of the Civil Procedure Code of Ukraine provides

The general rule is in paragraph 8 of Part 1 of Article 315 of the Civil Procedure Code of Ukraine: the court hears cases on establishing the fact of a person's death at a certain time where the DRACS office cannot register that fact. Article 317 is a special rule for deaths in an area under martial law or a state of emergency, or in a temporarily occupied area. It simplifies the procedure in three places.

• Any court. The application can be filed with any local court in Ukraine that administers justice, regardless of where the applicant lives or is staying.
• The applicant is not only the closest relative. Family members of the deceased, their representatives or other interested persons may apply if establishing the fact of death affects their rights, duties or legitimate interests.
• Short deadlines. The court hears such cases without delay, and the judgment is enforced immediately: you do not have to wait thirty days for it to enter into legal force before going to the DRACS office.

The case is heard in special (non-contentious) proceedings (paragraph 5 of Part 2 of Article 293 of the Civil Procedure Code of Ukraine). This means there is no plaintiff and no defendant, and no dispute. There is an applicant and an interested party, usually the DRACS office that will then register the death.

Establishing the fact of death or declaring a person dead

These two procedures are constantly confused, and the difference between them is fundamental. The fact of death is established when there is evidence that a person died on a specific day in specific circumstances. A person is declared dead when there is no evidence of death, only a long absence of information about the person.

If there are documentary traces of the death, such as an entry in a criminal proceeding, witnesses or photos, the right route is establishing the fact of death: it is faster and gives the exact date from which inheritance deadlines run.

Do you first need a refusal from the DRACS office

Many people start by going to the DRACS office for a written refusal to attach to the application. In this case we did not obtain such a refusal and went straight to court. The court agreed and stated in its judgment: under the explanatory letter of the Cassation Civil Court within the Supreme Court No. 985/0/208-21 of 22.04.2021, the requirement to obtain a refusal from the DRACS office before applying to court has been cancelled. Going straight to court is not a violation of Article 318 of the Civil Procedure Code of Ukraine, which sets the requirements for the application.

Article 318 itself requires the application to state three things: what fact the applicant asks the court to establish and for what purpose; why it is impossible to obtain or restore the document that certifies this fact; and what evidence confirms the fact. We explained the reason not by an official's refusal but by the status of the territory, as described below.

How to prove that the area is a combat zone

Article 317 does not apply to every death during the war, only to a death in a defined area. So the application must show that the place of death belongs to such an area and that this is exactly why a medical document is unavailable.

The court relied on Order No. 376 of 28.02.2025 of the Ministry of Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine, which approved the List of territories where hostilities are (were) being conducted or which are temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation. Under this list, Lyman in Kramatorsk district of Donetsk Oblast is an area of active hostilities. From this the court concluded that the applicant cannot obtain from a healthcare institution or a forensic medical institution a document of the established form on the death, and cannot register the death in the usual way.

The list of territories is updated regularly. Before filing, check the status of your locality as of the date of death and as of the date of applying to court, in the current version of the list.

What evidence replaces the medical certificate

The law does not contain a closed list of evidence of death. The court assesses everything submitted as a whole. In this case the evidence consisted of five elements, and each covered its own part of the question: whether death occurred, when, where, and whether this is the same person.

Shelling of civilians is investigated as a war crime: in this case the information was entered into the ERDR under Part 2 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine the day after the event. If a proceeding has not been opened yet, relatives can report the crime themselves; supporting victims in such a proceeding is the work of a criminal law attorney.

What the case did not have: witness testimony in the courtroom, a forensic medical examination, a burial certificate. The court did not require them and explained why. The judgment states that the possibilities for collecting evidence of death in an area of active hostilities may be significantly limited, while establishing this fact is of essential importance for exercising a number of human rights, in particular the right to property (inheritance) and the right to respect for private and family life.

A mistake in the police document: will it ruin the case

In the police reply to my attorney's request, the deceased's patronymic (middle name) was given incorrectly. Formally, such a letter relates to a person with different personal data.

We did not hide the discrepancy and did not wait for the police to reissue the letter. In the application we explained directly: this is a clerical error, and here is why. The court assessed it the same way and recorded in the judgment that it was an obvious technical error, since the surname, first name, date of birth, date and place of death and the number of the criminal proceeding fully match the other evidence.

It is better to name and explain discrepancies in documents yourself in the text of the application. If the court finds them on its own, it may leave the application without movement (a procedural step that gives time to fix defects) and, in the worst case, call the whole piece of evidence into question.

Three surnames in one family: how to prove the family link

The applicant is the granddaughter of the deceased, and the grandmother had also made a will in her favour. But on paper nothing linked them: the grandmother had changed her surname after marriage, the applicant's father carried her previous surname, and the applicant herself took her husband's surname. Three generations, three different surnames.

We built the chain from four documents:

1. the applicant's birth certificate, which names her father;
2. the applicant's marriage certificate, which explains why her current surname differs from her surname at birth;
3. the civil status record of the father's birth, which names the deceased as his mother, under her previous surname;
4. the civil status record of the grandmother's marriage, which confirms that the woman with the previous surname and the deceased are one and the same person.

The family did not have the fourth document. The day after proceedings were opened, the court granted our motion to obtain evidence, and nine days later the DRACS office sent a reply: the needed civil status record had been found in the State Register of Civil Status Acts of Citizens. The chain was complete.

If you lack birth or marriage certificates of older relatives, some of them can be restored even before going to court: duplicate certificates and register extracts are issued on a relative's application. How this works is described on the page about obtaining duplicate documents. What will not be issued to you personally, the court will obtain by ruling.

Case No. 645/8976/26: timeline

The case was heard by the Nemyshlianskyi District Court of Kharkiv in special (non-contentious) proceedings. The interested party was the DRACS office in Kharkiv. I represented the applicant.

Neither the applicant nor I came to the courtroom: we filed a motion to hear the case in our absence. The DRACS representative likewise asked to have the case heard in their absence and did not object to the application. For people who have moved to another region or abroad, this is an important point: personal presence was not required in such a case.

In the operative part, the court established the fact of death with the date and place, and also stated the deceased's date and place of birth and her taxpayer number. The DRACS office needs these details to draw up the civil status record without additional requests, so it is worth asking for them already in the application.

This is a first-instance court judgment that has not entered into legal force as of the date of publication: the appeal period is thirty days from the day the full text was drawn up. At the same time, the court allowed immediate enforcement of the judgment, and an appeal does not suspend enforcement.

What to do after the court judgment

The judgment itself is not yet a death certificate. There are three steps.

1. Registering the death. Take a copy of the judgment to the DRACS office. Under Part 3 of Article 17 of the Law "On State Registration of Civil Status Acts", a death is registered at the deceased's last place of residence, the place of death, the place where the body was found, or the place of burial. When the office at the place of death does not work, in practice the registration is done by the office that was the interested party in the case; check this with your office in advance.
2. Death certificate. After the civil status record is drawn up, the applicant receives the certificate.
3. Estate file. With the death certificate, the heir files an application to accept the inheritance with a notary.

The inheritance opens on the day of death, not on the day of the court judgment (Article 1220 of the Civil Code of Ukraine). The six months to accept the inheritance under Article 1270 of the Civil Code of Ukraine run from that date. If collecting evidence and the court proceedings drag on, you can miss the deadline; then you will have to ask the court for an additional period under Article 1272 of the Civil Code of Ukraine. Ask a notary about the rules for counting deadlines during martial law that are in force on the date you apply.

A case on the fact of death is usually only the first stage; next come the notary and registration of property rights, which is the practice of a family law attorney.

Typical mistakes of applicants

• Waiting for an "official certificate". They spend months trying to get a medical certificate where there is nobody to issue it, and lose the inheritance deadline.
• Choosing the wrong procedure. They file an application to declare the person dead, although there is evidence of death on a specific day, and are told to wait for the periods set by law.
• Not proving their own interest. The court must see how establishing the fact will affect the applicant's rights. In our case the purpose was stated directly: state registration of the death and subsequent registration of inheritance rights.
• Wording the request too generally. "Establish the fact of death" without the date, place and identifying data of the deceased is a judgment the DRACS office may refuse to act on.

Frequently asked questions

Which court should I file with if I have left Donetsk Oblast or live abroad?

Any local court in Ukraine that administers justice. Part 1 of Article 317 of the Civil Procedure Code of Ukraine expressly allows an application to establish the fact of a person's death in an area under martial law or a state of emergency, or in a temporarily occupied area, to be filed regardless of the applicant's place of residence or stay. In case No. 645/8976/26 the death occurred in Lyman, Donetsk Oblast, and the application was heard by a district court in Kharkiv. A representative can file the application, including through the E-Court (Electronic Court system), and you can ask for the case to be heard without the applicant by a separate motion. In our case none of the participants came to the courtroom, and this did not prevent a judgment.

Is a written refusal from the DRACS office required first?

In this case the court held that it is not. We went straight to court, without first visiting the DRACS office, and the court wrote separately in its judgment why this is permissible. It relied on explanatory letter No. 985/0/208-21 of 22.04.2021 of the Cassation Civil Court within the Supreme Court, under which the requirement to obtain a refusal from the registration body before applying to court has been cancelled, so going straight to court does not violate Article 318 of the Civil Procedure Code of Ukraine. However, the applicant must still explain why a document of death cannot be obtained. In our case the explanation was the status of the city: it is on the list of areas of active hostilities approved by Order No. 376 of 28.02.2025 of the Ministry of Development, so medical institutions do not work there. The outcome of one case does not automatically carry over to others, so if you have time, a written refusal will not hurt.

How long does a case on establishing the fact of death take?

Article 317 of the Civil Procedure Code of Ukraine requires such cases to be heard without delay. The actual time depends on the court's workload and on whether all the evidence is submitted at once. In case No. 645/8976/26 proceedings were opened on 14.09.2026 and the judgment was issued on 01.10.2026, which is 17 days. Nine of them were spent waiting for the DRACS office to reply to the ruling ordering the production of evidence: we lacked one civil status record to confirm the family link. What takes the most time is not the court but preparation: obtaining the ERDR extract, waiting for the police reply to the attorney's request, finding birth and marriage certificates. In our case about two and a half months passed from the death to the judgment, and almost all of that time went on collecting documents.

Do I have to pay a court fee for such an application?

As a general rule, an application in special proceedings is subject to a court fee, but the law provides an exemption for war-related cases. Paragraph 21 of Part 1 of Article 5 of the Law of Ukraine "On Court Fee" exempts applicants in cases on establishing facts of legal significance if the application is filed in connection with armed aggression, an armed conflict or the temporary occupation of the territory of Ukraine that resulted, in particular, in a person's death. For the court to apply the exemption, the link between the death and the aggression must be visible from the application itself and the attached evidence, for example from the ERDR extract about the shelling. If the link is not obvious, the court may leave the application without movement and ask you to pay the fee. Check the version of the law on the date of filing: the list of exemptions has changed several times.

What if the documents show different surnames or there is a mistake in the patronymic?

A discrepancy must be closed with documents or explained, not hidden. Different surnames across generations are common: they are explained by marriage certificates and birth records laid out as a chain from the applicant to the deceased. In our case there were four links in the chain, and one of them, the grandmother's marriage record, was obtained by the court from the DRACS office on our motion. A mistake in a single document is also not a death sentence. In the police reply the deceased's patronymic was given incorrectly, but the court found it to be an obvious technical error, because the surname, first name, date of birth, date and place of death and the criminal proceeding number matched the other evidence. If the mistake is in the civil status record itself, it is corrected separately, through the DRACS office or in court, and it is better to do this before filing the application.

Can I register the inheritance right after the court judgment?

Almost right away, but through an intermediate step. A notary opens an estate file on the basis of a death certificate, not a court judgment. So you first take a copy of the judgment to the DRACS office, which draws up the civil status record and issues the certificate. You do not need to wait for the judgment to enter into legal force for this: in case No. 645/8976/26 the court allowed immediate enforcement, and an appeal does not suspend enforcement. Then the heir files an application to accept the inheritance with a notary. Remember the deadline: six months under Article 1270 of the Civil Code of Ukraine run from the day of death established by the court, not from the date of the judgment. If it expires before you receive the death certificate, consult a notary in advance: a missed deadline will have to be restored through the court under Article 1272 of the Civil Code of Ukraine.

This material is based on the judgment of the Nemyshlianskyi District Court of Kharkiv of 01.10.2026 in case No. 645/8976/26, in which I represented the applicant. The text of the judgment is available in the Unified State Register of Court Decisions. Personal data of the participants is not given. The article is for information only and is not legal advice for your situation; check that the cited provisions are in force on the date you apply.

A loved one was killed in a combat zone or in an occupied territory, and there is no death certificate? Write to me, and we will look at what evidence you already have, what is missing and which court is the most convenient to file with. Consultations are held in Ukrainian or Russian; written communication in English is available.