MOSCOW, July 28 (RAPSI) – The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) declared inadmissible on Thursday a complaint which had been filed by three residents of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, who claimed their rights violated due to hostilities in Eastern Ukraine and demolition of their houses.

Anton Lisnyy, Svetlana Piven and Volodymyr Anokhin complained against both Ukraine and Russia stating that their lives had been put at risk as a result of the shelling of the villages where they lived after the two regions had announced their independence and the authorities in Kiev launched a military operation there. According to the applicants, since their property had either been destroyed or damaged they relied on Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 (protection of property) of the European Convention on Human Rights (Convention).

The applicants also complained about the fact that the operation of all state institutions in eastern Ukraine, including the courts, had been paralyzed and these institutions had been relocated to areas controlled by the Government of Ukraine.

The applicants alleged that their rights were also violated under five articles of the Convention, including Article 2 (right to life), Article 6 § 1 (right to a fair trial), Article 8 (right to respect for private life), Article 10 (freedom of expression) and Article 13 (right to an effective remedy).

The Strasburg-based court has unanimously declared these applications inadmissible having found that the applicants failed to sufficiently substantiate their complaints by not presenting at least titles to property or of residence. The Ukrainians have submitted only copies of their passports, photographs of destroyed houses with no proof of ownership, and a general description of the situation in the region.

Meanwhile, there are about 3,000 individual claims pending in the ECHR against Ukraine and the Russian Federation concerning Crimea’s breakaway from Ukraine and the fighting in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. Besides, ECHR is to consider three inter-state applications.