ECHR sets date for Ukraine and the Netherlands v. Russia case hearing

He reported that the Ukrainian party had answered over fifty questions posed by the court ahead of the admissibility hearing in the case of Ukraine v. Russia, the so-called Donbas case (now called "Ukraine and the Netherlands v. Russian Federation").

According to Lishchyna, this is the best material that the Ukrainian party has collected in six years of conducting this case. He noted that this time all special services provided evidence of effective control by the Russian Federation over separate districts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions (ORDLO).

"The court informed it planned a very ambitious schedule for this case next year: by September, it intends to see the exchange of motions between the Netherlands and Russia on MH17, and responses from all participants, including third parties (we have two: the Government of Canada and Human Rights Law Center – University of Nottingham), in response to additional questions from the European Court of Human Rights. Id est, in fact, in 9 months the court is trying to catch up with the state of the Ukrainian case in Donbas with the help of the Dutch case, to which we've been moving for six years," Lishchyna said.

He added that the court was "very serious" and had already warned the parties that they would grant deferrals only in exceptional cases.

As reported, on November 30, 2020, Lishchyna informed that the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights decided to join the interstate case "Ukraine v. Russia" no. 8019/16, concerning the events in Donbas, the case "Ukraine v. Russia" no. 43800/14 concerning children from state institutions illegally taken to Russia at the beginning of the war, and the case "Netherlands v. Russia" no. 28525/20, which relates to the downed MH17.

The case is now called "Ukraine and the Netherlands v. Russia" nos. 43800/14, 8019/16, and 28525/20.