Strasbourg notifies Russia of new inter-state application over Crimea and Eastern Ukraine

The case of Ukraine v. Russia (IV) (application no. 42410/15) concerns the events in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine mainly as from September 2014.

Including the new case there are currently three inter-state applications lodged by Ukraine against Russia pending before the court. Ukraine v. Russia (no. 20958/14), lodged on 13 March 2014, concerns the events leading up to and following the assumption of control by the Russian Federation over the Crimean peninsula from March 2014 and subsequent developments in Eastern Ukraine up to the beginning of September 2014.

Ukraine v. Russia (II) (no. 43800/14), lodged on 13 June 2014, concerns the alleged abduction of three groups of children in Eastern Ukraine and their temporary transfer to Russia on three occasions between June and August 2014.

At the request of the Russian government, the court agreed to extend to 31 December 2015 the time allowed for submission of the government’s observations on the admissibility of the first two inter-state applications.

Another inter-state application, Ukraine v. Russia (III) (no. 49537/14), was struck out of the court’s list of cases on 1 September 2015.

The decision was adopted after the government of Ukraine had informed the court that they did not wish to pursue the application, given that an individual application (no. 49522/14) concerning the same subject matter was pending before the court. The case concerned the deprivation of liberty and the alleged ill-treatment of a Ukrainian national belonging to the Crimean Tatars ethnic group, in the context of criminal proceedings conducted against him by the Russian authorities.

In addition to the inter-state applications, there are currently more than 1,400 individual applications apparently related to the events in Crimea or the hostilities in Eastern Ukraine pending before the court.