The Government of Ukraine submitted to the ECHR a written position for public hearing in the case “Ukraine v. Russia (re Eastern Ukraine)” No. 8019/16.

Ukraine's position is as follows:

1. The RF shall be liable for human rights violations committed by the military units of the RF and ‘DPR’/‘LPR’ units controlled by it, as such violations fall under Russia's extra-territorial jurisdiction;
2. The Russian Federation exercises effective control over the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions both directly and through its subordinate ‘DPR’/‘LPR’ from spring 2014 until now;
3. ‘DPR’/‘LPR’ are completely dependent on Russia and exist only due to political, military and financial support, including:
   • involvement of the Russian special services to exacerbation of the armed conflict;
   • regular supply of weapons;
   • recruiting, training and sending ‘volunteers’ and contractors to Donetsk and Luhansk regions to participate in the conflict;
   • direct appointment/dismissal of the leadership of the ‘DPR’/‘LPR’, full control over their actions;
   • shelling of positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces from the RF territory;
   • direct invasion of the Ukrainian territory by the regular army of the Russian Federation;
   • centralized coordination of armed militant groups throughout the period;
4. The RF shall be liable for the administrative practice of human rights violations at territories not controlled by Ukraine, including assaults, disappearances, torture and killing of civilians, their capture and abuse, torture and extrajudicial executions of both civilians and Ukrainian servicemen, attacks on independent media, journalists, obstruction of the early elections of the President of Ukraine on 25 May 2014 and intimidation of residents in order to prevent their participation in voting, violation of the right to freedom of movement, attacks on religious communities and organizations.

The Government of Ukraine provided evidence of the direct involvement of the Russian Federation in the events in Eastern Ukraine and noted violations of rights provided by Articles 2 (Right to life), 3 (Prohibition of torture), 4 (Prohibition of slavery and forced labor), 5 (Right to liberty and security), 9 (Freedom of thought, conscience and religion), 10 (Freedom of expression), 11 (Freedom of association) and 14(Prohibition of discrimination)of the Convention, Articles 1 (Protection of property), 2 (Right to education) and 3 (Right to free elections) of the First Protocol to the Convention.