ECHR Decides On Date When Russia Starts War In Ukraine. This Will Be Needed For Court
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) found that the territories temporarily occupied in 2014 were under the de facto control of Russia since May 11, 2014. This will be needed for further legal proceedings.
This was reported by the Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine.
The decision of the ECHR concerns the international case "Ukraine and the Netherlands v. Russia" (applications Nos. 8019/16, 43804/14 and 28525/20).
That is, it is about an interim decision of the Court - recognition of the jurisdiction of the ECHR in this case. In the future, the Grand Chamber will issue a decision on the merits of the case.
The ECHR recognized that the Russian military had been actively present in Donbas since April 2014, and that there had been a large-scale deployment of Russian troops as early as 2014.
In addition, the Court established that Russia exercised de facto control over the captured regions in the east of Ukraine and had a decisive influence on these territories as a result of military, political and economic support for the "DPR" and "LPR" groupings.
The court also established that the defendant state provided weapons and other military equipment to the occupying bodies of the "DPR" and "LPR" on a significant scale in the early stages of their creation.
Note that the case "Ukraine and the Netherlands v. Russia" covers three interstate statements:
- regarding systematic violations by Russia in the temporarily occupied territories in eastern Ukraine of a number of articles of the European Convention on Human Rights, in particular Article 2 on the right to life, Article 3 on the prohibition of torture, Article 4 on the prohibition of slavery, etc. (No. 8019/16);
- abduction of children in eastern Ukraine and their temporary removal to Russia (application No. 43800/14);
- downing of flight MH17 in July 2014 (Netherlands v. Russia application No. 28525/20).
What does the adopted decision mean for Ukraine?
Recognition by the international court that Russia is an occupying state since 2014. That is, the time from which crimes committed by Russian-controlled armed formations in the temporarily occupied territories of Donbas will be considered is clearly defined.
Thus, it has been established that the Russian Federation, in the case of proving a violation of the Convention, is responsible for crimes against the civilian population and other acts of aggression in the occupied territories of eastern Ukraine.
The next stage is the consideration of the merits of the case, after which the Grand Chamber of the ECHR must issue a final decision.
It will be recalled that the European Parliament supported the resolution on the creation of a tribunal to bring to justice the top leadership of Russia and Belarus for crimes of aggression against Ukraine.