Europe's top rights court finds Russia responsible for rights abuses in Ukraine
The Strasbourg-based court said Russia had performed indiscriminate military attacks, summary executions of civilians, torture including the use of rape as a weapon of war, unjustified displacement and transfer of civilians and other violations.
Ahead of Wednesday's ruling, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia would not abide by any court decisions, saying: "We consider them null and void."
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) is an international court of the Council of Europe – also based in Strasbourg – from which Russia was expelled in 2022 following its invasion of Ukraine. Russia's parliament then voted in 2023 to end the ECHR's jurisdiction in the country.
"Taken as a whole, the vast volume of evidence before the Court presented a picture of interconnected practices of manifestly unlawful conduct by agents of the Russian State (Russian armed forces and other authorities, occupying administrations, and separatist armed groups and entities) on a massive scale across Ukraine," the ECHR said in its ruling.
The ruling concerned four consolidated cases, one of which involved Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, which departed Amsterdam for Kuala Lumpur in July 2014 and was shot down over eastern Ukraine amid fighting between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists. All 298 people on board the plane died.
Moscow denies any responsibility for MH17's downing, and in 2014 denied any presence in Ukraine. 'Suffering and grief' The ECHR ruled that Russia had failed to conduct an adequate investigation into the incident, to cooperate with requests for information or provide legal remedies for survivors. Its lack of cooperation and continued denial of any involvement has caused additional suffering for the victims' relatives, the court said.
"Nothing can take away this suffering and grief, but I hope the verdict offers a sense of justice and recognition," Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp said in response to the ruling. A majority of those on the airliner were Dutch.
The other three cases covered by Wednesday's ruling were brought by Ukraine – over pro-Russian separatists accused of abducting groups of Ukrainian children and transferring them to Russia, and over alleged patterns of human rights violations during Russia's war in Ukraine.
Ukraine's Justice Ministry hailed the ECHR ruling as "one of the most important in the practice of interstate cases" in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.
The ECHR is expected to rule in due course on possible damages and compensation, but it has no way of enforcing its rulings, especially on a country that no longer recognises its jurisdiction, meaning Wednesday's verdict is mainly symbolic.
(vib)
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