LONDON (Reuters) - Broker McGill and Partners has launched a commercial property war risk reinsurance programme for Ukraine, which it said on Thursday was the first of its kind since Russia's invasion of the country in Feb 2022.

Companies in Ukraine have found it difficult to get insurance since the start of the war because Western reinsurers, who insure the insurers, have placed exclusions on the country.

McGill said it had collaborated with local Ukrainian insurer ARX to provide up to $50 million in cover for each commercial property policy, with reinsurance from firms in London including Lloyd's of London syndicates.

FortuneGuard, an insurance technology company, will use official data on projectiles fired into Ukraine to assess the likelihood of war damage. Cover will be available for properties which are more than 100 km (62 miles) from the front line, McGill said in a statement.

Hamish Greenwood, head of crisis management at McGill, said the broker had been working for some months to set up the programme.

"We never felt a blanket exclusion across all of Ukraine was fair, because the risk in the west is not the same as the risk in the east", Greenwood said. Seven London firms have already agreed to offer cover under the programme, Greenwood added.

Multilateral organisations the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation have already stepped in to back war insurance in Ukraine for goods and vehicles in transit, and healthcare and agriculture respectively.

Broker Marsh offers an insurance programme for cargo transportation through the Black Sea corridor, with the support of Ukrainian state banks.