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European Court of Human Rights condemns Russia's actions in Ukraine

Republic of Estonia - Ministry of Foreign Affairs

09.07.2025 | 15:32

Today, 9 July, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, France, issued a judgment in a case brought by Ukraine and the Netherlands against Russia. The Court found that the Russian Federation had systematically violated several articles of the European Convention on Human Rights during the armed conflict that began in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of eastern Ukraine in the spring of 2014, during which the Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 was also shot down, as well as during the full-scale war that began in February 2022.

Complaints submitted by Ukraine between 2015 and 2022 concerned grave human rights violations against civilians by separatist militias and Russian soldiers. These included illegal military attacks, arrests and detentions, beatings, abductions, torture, forced labour, censorship of Ukrainian media, destruction of private property and a ban on teaching Ukrainian. They deliberately targeted persons of Ukrainian nationality and those who supported the territorial integrity of the country. The Ukrainian state also filed a separate complaint regarding the forcible deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia.

The complaint by the Netherlands concerned Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, which was shot down over Donetsk on 17 July 2014, resulting in the deaths of all 298 people on board, including 196 Dutch nationals. According to the Netherlands, Russia failed to investigate the incident with the necessary diligence. Russia must compensate the damage caused by all identified human rights violations, but a more detailed decision on this will be made by the Court in the future. The Court also ordered Russia to participate in the establishment of an international and independent mechanism aimed at identifying children who were transferred from Ukraine to Russia or Russian-controlled territories before 16 September 2022 and restoring their contact with surviving relatives.

"The judgment of the European Court of Human Rights is an important milestone in establishing justice and clearly shows that the international community unequivocally condemns the Russian aggression," Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said. "We must continue to support Ukraine and find solutions to ensure that perpetrators of war crimes will not go unpunished in the future. That is why we support the decision to establish a special tribunal for the crime of aggression at the Council of Europe, as well as the establishment of a mechanism to compensate for war damage caused to Ukraine."

Foreign Minister Tsahkna stressed that Estonia remains committed to upholding the European Convention on Human Rights and the founding principles of the European Court of Human Rights. "Every international human rights violation must carry consequences," he added. "This is why we fully support the work of the European Court of Human Rights. Impunity must not prevail."