Europe’s top human rights court delivered damning judgments against Russia in four cases brought by Kyiv and the Netherlands, accusing Moscow of atrocities in Ukraine dating back more than a decade.
Judges at the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Russia was responsible for widespread violations of international law — from shooting down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in 2014, to the murder, torture, rape, destruction of civilian infrastructure, and kidnapping of Ukrainian children after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of 2022.
The judges found the human rights abuses went beyond any military objective and that Russia used sexual violence as part of a strategy to break Ukrainian morale, the French judge said.
Families of the victims of the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 disaster saw the decision as an important milestone in their 11-year quest for justice. The court will rule on financial compensation at a later date but Russia’s departure leaves little hope that damages will ever be collected.
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