MOSCOW, July 22 (RAPSI) — Russia has filed an inter-state application against Ukraine with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) outlining a number of issues ranging from atrocities during the Maidan protests to the downing of flight MH17 in 2014.

Firstly, Russia draws the attention of the ECHR to the responsibility of the Ukrainian authorities for deaths of civilians, illegal imprisonment and ill-treatment of people, including the incidents that took place on Independence Square in Kiev (Maidan) and in the House of Trade Unions in Odessa in 2014, as well as in the Donbass during the so-called "anti-terrorist operation".

Secondly, the claims in the complaint relate to the systematic violation by Kiev of the right to freedom of expression, in particular with respect to journalists.

Russia insists that ECHR should also study the situation with discrimination in Ukraine against the Russian-speaking population, including the ousting of the Russian language from the public sphere, primarily from the sphere of secondary and higher education and the consumer service system.

At the same time, a number of claims against Kiev are related to discrimination against Russian companies and businesses, attacks on diplomatic, consular and other representative offices of the Russian Federation in Ukraine, as well as refusal to provide the necessary legal assistance to the Russian investigating authorities.

Death of people, harm to health and destruction of property as a result of shelling by the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the territories adjacent to the Russian Federation; depriving residents of certain territories of the South-East of Ukraine of the opportunity to participate in elections of the central authorities, the statement of the Prosecutor General’s Office reads.

Russia draws the attention of the ECHR to the situation with the deadly MH17 crash, as Moscow says, it happened due to the fact that the Ukrainian authorities failed to close its airspace over the conflict zone.

Finally, the complaint points to the blocking of the North Crimean Canal serving as the main source of fresh water for the residents of the Crimean Peninsula.

The application is intended to draw the attention of the European Court of Human Rights to gross and systematic violations of human rights by the Ukrainian authorities, to record numerous facts of criminal acts in the international legal field, to force the Ukrainian authorities to stop committing the alleged crimes, conduct a proper investigation and bring the perpetrators to justice, restore peace and harmony on the territory of Ukraine, Russia's Prosecutor General's Office says.

The application, among other things, contains a detailed description of the process of unconstitutional change of government in Ukraine and the promotion of nationalist forces into the Ukrainian state bodies, which was the main reason for the ensuing massive violations of the European Convention on Human Rights and its Protocols, according to the Prosecutor General's Office. 

Interim measures should be applied in accordance with Rule 39 of the Rules of Court, obliging Ukraine to refrain from further committing violations such as blocking the flow of fresh water to Crimea, restricting the rights of national and linguistic minorities, including free access to general and higher education in their native languages, prohibition of Russian-language television and radio channels, restricting access to Internet platforms and printed publications in Russian, the Prosecutor General’s Office statement reads.