European Court joins inter-State case concerning Russian military operations in Ukraine to inter-State case concerning eastern Ukraine and downing of flight MH17

ECHR 055 (2023) – 22-02-2023

On 17 February 2023 the Grand Chamber decided to join inter-State application Ukraine v. Russia (X) (application no. 11055/22) to the inter-State applications in Ukraine and the Netherlands v. Russia (application nos. 8019/16, 43800/14 and 28525/20), which was already pending before it and which was declared partially admissible on 30 November 2022 in a decision that was delivered on 25 January 2023: see press release.

The joined case will be referred to as Ukraine and the Netherlands v. Russia (nos. 8019/16, 43800/14, 28525/20, and 11055/22).

This decision was taken in accordance with Rules 42 § 1 and 71 § 1 of the Rules of Court in the interests of the efficient administration of justice. The Court will shortly fix the future procedure in the case.

The admissibility and merits of Ukraine v. Russia (X) will be examined jointly under Article 29 § 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights and at the same time as the merits of the proceedings in the existing Ukraine and the Netherlands v. Russia case.

Furthermore, the President of the Grand Chamber decided that there will be no further period of time for the lodging of third-party intervention requests in the joined case (Rules 44 §§ 3 and 4 and 71 § 1). The third-party intervention requests which have already been made in the context of application no. 11055/22 (see press release of 23 September 2022) will shortly be examined and decided.

Aside from this joined case, there are currently three other inter-State applications and over 8,500 individual applications pending before the Court concerning the events in Crimea, eastern Ukraine and the Sea of Azov. For further information, see the Q & A on Inter-State Cases.

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Ukraine v. Russia (X) concerns the Ukrainian Government’s allegations of mass and gross human-rights violations committed by the Russian Federation in its military operations on the territory of Ukraine since 24 February 2022.

The Court gave notice of the application to Russia on 28 June 2022: see press release.

Ukraine and the Netherlands v. Russia concerns complaints related to the conflict in eastern Ukraine involving pro-Russian separatists which began in 2014, including the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which resulted in the deaths of 298 people, among them 196 Dutch nationals. It encompasses three inter-State applications which were joined in November 2020: see press release.


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