Ukraine on Friday lodged a new complaint against Russia at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), accusing Moscow of “targeted assassinations” of perceived opponents under state-authorised operations both within and beyond Russia, even outside situations of armed conflict.
The application, which was published on the court’s website on Tuesday, further alleges there is a systemic practice within Russia of “failing to investigate these assassination operations and of deliberately mounting cover-up operations aimed at frustrating efforts to find the persons responsible”. The Ukrainian government argues that such actions amount to a breach of Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects individuals’ “right to life.” The court did not provide any details regarding the alleged assassinations.
This is the ninth inter-state case taken by Kyiv against Moscow at the European rights court, four of which are still pending. These outstanding cases relate to the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014, human rights violations in Russia-annexed Crimea in 2014—which was declared partly admissible by the court last month—and Russia’s seizure of three Ukrainian Navy vessels in the Kerch Strait in 2018.
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Russia has come under increased international criticism in recent months due to its aggressive actions in the region. Despite multiple calls from individual nations as well as the United Nations (UN) for Russia to end its occupation of Crimea, Moscow has consistently dismissed such allegations as politically motivated, maintaining that the Crimean people had shown their support to join Russia in 2014 through a referendum earlier that year. However, the US, the EU, and the UN consider the vote illegitimate and inconsistent with the Ukrainian constitution and international law.
As for eastern Ukraine, where the conflict near the Russian border between Ukrainian troops and separatist Russian-backed fighters in the Donbas region has claimed over 14,000 lives since 2014, the international community has blamed Russia for prohibiting any progress towards a solution to the conflict due to its aggressive posture and presence of forces in the area. Moscow, for its part, has rejected the claims and has instead blamed Ukraine for using disproportionate force against civilians in the region, and accused Western powers of being “accomplices” in Kyiv’s crimes in the area.
Also read: US, Europe Clash With Russia Over Conflict in Eastern Ukraine
However, human rights is not the only area of contention between the two sides. Ukraine has also in recent weeks stepped up its efforts to counter Russia’s aggression through massive disinformation campaigns, and banned three Kremlin-linked TV channels to stop them from spreading “war propaganda,” and influence public opinion regarding the conflict in eastern Ukraine, where a majority of the largely Russian-speaking population watches Russian news. Additionally, Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council on Monday accused Russian networks of conducting huge cyberattacks on the country’s security and defence websites. However, the agency did not reveal any details about the damage done, or who exactly organised the assault.