European Court finds Russia guilty of violations in Ukraine

Europe's highest human rights court has ruled that Russia was responsible for serious violations of international law in Ukraine, including the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in 2014.

A woman walks over the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, near a village in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, after the plane crashed on July 17, 2014.

This is the first time an international court has formally held Moscow responsible for human rights violations related to the conflict in Ukraine.

On Wednesday, judges at the European Court of Human Rights announced judgments in four cases brought by Ukraine and the Netherlands against Russia since the start of the conflict in 2014.

The charges include murder, torture, rape, destruction of civilian infrastructure, the abduction of Ukrainian children and the downing of Malaysia Airlines passenger plane, flight MH17, by Russian-backed Ukrainian separatists.

Reading the verdicts to a packed courtroom in Strasbourg, the court's president, Matthias Guyomar, said Russian forces had violated international humanitarian law in Ukraine by carrying out attacks that "killed and injured thousands of civilians and created fear and terror."

The judges found that the human rights violations outweighed any military objectives, and Russia used sexual violence as part of a strategy to break Ukrainian morale, the French judge said.

"The use of rape as a weapon of war was an act of extreme cruelty that amounted to torture," Guyomar said.

The complaints were filed before the court's governing body expelled Moscow in 2022, following the launch of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

However, the decisions have more symbolic value, as Moscow has emphasized that it will not recognize them.

"We will not respect this, we consider it invalid," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a conversation with reporters on Wednesday.

Relatives of the victims of the MH17 disaster consider the decision an important step in their 11-year search for justice.

"It's a real step towards understanding who was really responsible," Thomas Schansman, who lost his 18-year-old son, Quinn, in that tragedy, told the Associated Press.

The Boeing 777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot down on July 17, 2014, by a Russian-made Buk missile, launched from territory in eastern Ukraine controlled by separatist rebels.

All 298 passengers and crew members died, including 196 Dutch citizens. In May, the UN aviation agency held Russia responsible for the downing of the plane.

The European Court of Human Rights is an important part of the Council of Europe, the highest human rights institution on the continent.

Russia was expelled from the council due to its invasion and war in Ukraine. However, the court can still hear cases against Russia that predate its expulsion.

In 2023, judges ruled in favor of Ukraine and the Netherlands in a jurisdictional challenge, finding sufficient evidence that areas in eastern Ukraine controlled by separatists were “under the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation,” including the provision of weapons and political and economic support./REL/