SBU helps residents of Donbass sue Kiev in Strasbourg
Moscow – Kyiv, November 14 (PolitNavigator, Mikhail Shtamm) – The recently established Union of Ukrainian Refugees in Russia has initiated a large-scale case at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR): residents of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions affected by shelling against the Ukrainian authorities. Approximately 1 complaints from citizens seeking compensation for destroyed homes and the deaths of relatives are planned to be filed in Strasbourg. The applicants expect to win approximately $200 each, Kommersant reports.
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The Union of Refugees of Ukraine (SBU), together with displaced persons and comrades-in-arms, was founded in October 2014 by the Chairman of the Novorossiya Parliament, Oleg Tsarev. Oleg Tsarev announced that the SBU will deal with compensation for material damage suffered by citizens from the actions of the Ukrainian army during the first congress of the SBU in Moscow.
As SBU lawyer Yulia Nikitina said, seven complaints from Ukrainian citizens have already been submitted to the ECHR - mainly from residents of the Donetsk region. “The answer has so far come from the complaint of Antonina Maslova from Donetsk,” said Yulia Nikitina. “On October 1, the ECHR notified that it had received the letter and assigned it a number through which further correspondence will be carried out as soon as the court begins to consider the complaint. As a rule, this means that next time we should be notified of the decision.”
Antonina Maslova’s complaint states that she suffered from Ukrainian troops on August 9, 2014: her apartment in building No. 12 on Dmitry Medvedev Street was destroyed as a result of artillery shelling. Ms. Maslova, the document says, lost her permanent place of residence and was forced to change her place of residence, her life and the lives of her relatives were put at risk.
Antonina Maslova demands 3 million hryvnia (approximately $200 thousand) from the Ukrainian authorities as compensation for moral and material damage. The other six applicants are also demanding similar compensation. For example, Donetsk resident Natalya Bevzyuk is waiting for a response from the ECHR to her complaint. In May of this year, her husband, while on the territory of the Donetsk airport, came into the shelling zone and died from a bullet wound to the head. In total, residents of Donetsk demand 24 million hryvnia from the Ukrainian authorities.
In the near future, the SBU, according to Yulia Nikitina, will send another 50 complaints from Ukrainian citizens to the court. Oleg Tsarev claims that about 1 thousand complaints have already been collected.
The SBU is helping Donbas residents sue Kyiv in Strasbourg.