• July 22, 2021, 10:30 am

On July 22, 2021, the Russian Federation filed an interstate complaint with the European Court of Human Rights against Ukraine under article 33 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

The complaint concerns the following main groups of violations::

– responsibility of the Ukrainian authorities for the death of civilians, illegal imprisonment and ill-treatment of people, including those that took place on Independence Square in Kiev (Maidan) and in the House of Trade Unions in Odessa in 2014, as well as in the Donbass during the so-called “anti-terrorist operation”;

– the practice of suppressing freedom of speech and persecuting dissenters by banning the work of mass media, Internet platforms, persecuting journalists (Russian, Ukrainian and other states), politicians and ordinary citizens;

– policy of discrimination against the Russian-speaking population, ousting the use of the Russian language from the public sphere, primarily from the sphere of secondary and higher education and the consumer service system;

– discrimination policy of Russian companies and entrepreneurs;

– loss of life, damage to health and destruction of property as a result of shelling by the Armed Forces of Ukraine of the adjacent territory of the Russian Federation;

– depriving residents of certain territories of the south-east of Ukraine of the opportunity to participate in elections to central authorities;

– blocking of the North Crimean Canal as the main source of fresh water for residents of the Crimean Peninsula;

– attacks on diplomatic, consular and other representations of the Russian Federation in Ukraine;

– the crash of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 on July 17, 2014, due to the failure of the Ukrainian authorities to close the airspace over the combat zone, and the death of 298 people – all passengers and crew members;

– refusal to provide the necessary legal assistance to the Russian investigative authorities in the investigation of crimes committed.

The appeal is intended to draw the attention of the European Court and the entire international community to the gross and systematic violations of human rights by the Ukrainian authorities, record numerous facts of criminal acts in the international legal field, force the Ukrainian authorities to stop committing them, conduct a proper investigation and immediately bring the perpetrators to justice, and restore peace and harmony on the territory of Ukraine.

Some of the claims of the Russian Federation relate to violations committed by the Ukrainian authorities directly in relation to Russian citizens, among whom there are dead and wounded. On the territory of Ukraine, a significant number of Russian citizens are subjected to ill-treatment, their property is destroyed or damaged, and Russian businesses are discriminated against. In the immediate vicinity of the Russian border, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are conducting military operations that pose a real threat to the lives and health of Russian citizens living in the border regions, and force thousands of Ukrainian citizens to seek refuge on Russian territory.

The Russian Federation’s complaint contains a detailed description of the process of unconstitutional change of power in Ukraine and the promotion of nationalist forces to Ukrainian State bodies, which was the main reason for the subsequent mass violations of the Convention and its Protocols.

The complaint requests the ECHR to apply interim measures in accordance with rule 39 of the Rules of Procedure, obliging Ukraine to immediately stop such blatant violations as blocking the flow of fresh water to Crimea, restricting the rights of national and linguistic minorities, including free access to general and higher education in their native language, banning broadcasting of Russian-language television and radio channels, restricting access to Internet platforms and printed publications in Russian.

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