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European Court Rules Russia Committed Systematic Human Rights Abuses in Ukraine Since 2014
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![Photo of Dariia Mykhailenko]( "Photo of Dariia Mykhailenko")
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled that Russia has carried out flagrant and unprecedented human rights violations in Ukraine since 2014, including extrajudicial killings, sexual violence, and forced labour.
The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights unanimously concluded that between 11 May 2014 and 16 September 2022—when Russia withdrew from the European Convention on Human Rights—the Russian state engaged in “manifestly unlawful conduct … on a massive scale,” according ECHR judgment, published on July 9.
The ECHR confirmed extensive documentation of indiscriminate attacks, mock executions, the severing of body parts, and the use of electric shocks, including to intimate areas of victims’ bodies. Civilians and prisoners of war were subjected to inhuman treatment, including sexual violence deployed as a weapon of war. These abuses were found to be systematic and widespread across Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine.
The court concluded that these crimes were not isolated incidents but part of a broader campaign to dismantle the democratic fabric of Ukraine and the principles of international law established after World War II.
“In none of the conflicts previously before the court has there been such near universal condemnation of the ‘flagrant’ disregard by the respondent state for the foundations of the international legal order,” the judgment reads.
Among the gravest violations identified by the European Court of Human Rights are summary executions of both civilians and Ukrainian military personnel; widespread torture, including the rape of women, girls, and male detainees; and the arbitrary detention and forced displacement of civilians. Court also cited the systematic suppression of religious communities not aligned with the Moscow Patriarchate, the violent dispersal of peaceful protests, and targeted attacks on journalists.
Additionally, the destruction and looting of civilian property were documented, alongside efforts to indoctrinate Ukrainian schoolchildren, suppress the Ukrainian language, and the unlawful transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia, where many were later adopted.
The court underscored that sexual violence was used “as part of a military strategy to dehumanise, humiliate and break the morale of the Ukrainian population … and to assert dominance over Ukrainian sovereign territory.”
A decision on reparations will be made at a later stage.
Earlier, the European Court of Human Rights has issued a landmark ruling, formally holding Russia accountable for extensive human rights violations during its war against Ukraine. These include the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 and numerous atrocities committed both prior to and following the full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022.
