Ukraine takes Russia to Europe rights court over 'targeted assassinations'

STRASBOURG: Ukraine has accused Russia of targeted assassinations of "perceived opponents" in a case lodged at the European Court of Human Rights, the latest salvo by Kiev in a barrage of legal complaints against Moscow.

The case, which was filed last week, accuses Russia of carrying out "state-authorised" aassassinations "in Russia and on the territory of other states... outside a situation of armed conflict", the court said Tuesday.

It is the ninth case taken by Ukraine against Russia at the ECHR, which hears complaints over alleged breaches of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Ukraine also accuses Russia of failing to investigate the assassinations "and of deliberately mounting cover-up operations aimed at frustrating efforts to find the persons responsible", the court said.

The court did not provide details of the alleged assassinations.

Ukraine argues that they constitute an infringement of the right to life, which is protected by the Convention on Human Rights, to which Russia is a signatory.

Other cases taken by Ukraine relate to the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in July 2014, human rights violations in the Crimea peninsula which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014, and Russia's seizure of three Ukrainian navy vessels in the Kerch Strait in 2018.

Ukraine's government has been at war with separatists in eastern Ukraine since pro-Russian militias launched a bid for independence in the wake of Moscow's annexation of Crimea.

Nearly 13,000 people have been killed in the conflict, which deepened Russia's estrangement from the West.