The applicant, a national of Ukraine, from the oblast of Zhytomyr, requested international protection in France. By decision of 8 October 2021, the OFPRA rejected the request and the applicant appealed before the CNDA. He argued that he was subjected to persecution based on political opinion, in the country of origin.

The court first noted that the risk of persecution as alleged by the applicant was not proven. The court then examined the situation in the oblast of Zhytomyr, where the applicant originated.

The court observed that ACLED recorded 96 security incidents between 24 February and 14 November 2022 with a rate of displacement of civilian populations at 10% of the total number of displaced people. The court noted that although the Zhytomyr oblast is not an active zone of conflict, the sources of information available still record bombings there by Russian troops (according to a press release of Amnesty International and an article in the newspaper Le Monde, “Flood of Russian strikes on Ukrainian cities” of 10 October 2022).

From all these aspects, the CNDA concluded that it was not necessary to consider that the international armed conflict in Ukraine generated, as of the date of this decision, in the Zhytomyr Oblast, a situation of indiscriminate violence that would reach such a level that there would be serious and proven grounds to believe that each civilian who returned there would be, by their mere presence in this oblast, at real risk of serious threat against life or person.

The court further held that it was up to the applicants who were nationals from this oblast to provide all elements relating to their personal situation allowing them to believe that they would run a risk for their life or their person within the meaning of the provisions of the CESEDA. 

In this case, the applicant was not granted subsidiary protection as, according to the court, he could not point to aspects that would indicate a vulnerability in case of return to Ukraine.