You're reading: European Court of Human Rights adds 2 cases to Ukraine’s main case against Russia

The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights has accepted two new inter-state lawsuits against Russia and added them to Ukraine’s current lawsuit against the country over the Kremlin-sponsored war in Donbas, according to Ivan Lishchyna, Ukraine’s deputy justice minister.

The new cases include one filed by Ukraine regarding the illegal transfer of children from orphanages in the Donbas to Russia in the war’s early days and another filed by the Netherlands on Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17, which was downed by Russian forces in the sky over Donbas in July 2014, killing 298 people.

According to the Ukrainian official, the addition of the two new cases may drag out the legal battle between Ukraine and Russia. But, on the other hand, it can help Ukraine’s case by adding more evidence of Russia’s aggression.

“On the bright side, the Dutch case contains more inquiry data we were not granted access to due to investigatory privilege,” Lishchyna said on Nov. 30. “Now those files are going to be in our case as well. Besides, the second accuser joining the case amplifies its context: Russia’s human rights violations during an invasion on sovereign Ukrainian territory.”

The hearings are going to take a lot of time, but, according to the official, this “can hardly be considered a serious risk.”

“Anyways, we’re going to request that (the European Court of Human Rights) accelerate the Dutch case so that the unification of accusations backed by Ukraine cannot delay resolving the (Ukrainian) complaints.”

In October 2017, Ukraine filed a claim against Russia over its military invasion of the Donbas, which has continued since 2014.

The European Court of Human Rights, as well as the Hague-based International Court of Justice, are also hearing several separate Ukrainian claims against Russia regarding the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and human rights violations in the occupied peninsula.