As reported by European Pravda, the court’s ruling was announced on July 9. Russia did not participate in the proceedings or the announcement.The case combines four complaints, covering abuses during the conflict in Donbas, the 2014 abduction of Ukrainian children, the downing of flight MH17, and violations committed during Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine after February 24, 2022.The ECHR unanimously confirmed it had jurisdiction over events that occurred before Russia’s expulsion from the Council of Europe on September 16, 2022. It found Russia responsible for serious and large-scale abuses in occupied Ukrainian territories, including:Arbitrary killings of civilians and prisoners of warTorture, inhuman treatment, and forced laborDeportation of Ukrainian children and adults to Russian-controlled areasSystematic efforts to erase Ukrainian identity, including through education"Filtering" procedures targeting civiliansIndiscriminate strikes against civilian infrastructureThe court also established that Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down by a Russian Buk missile system over Donbas, and held Russia responsible for enabling the attack.Euronews adds that the Strasbourg ruling is separate from the criminal proceedings in the Netherlands, where two Russians and one Ukrainian were convicted in absentia over the downing of MH17."The judges are set to rule on a total of four cases, brought by Ukraine and the Netherlands against Russia, but the decisions are expected to be largely symbolic," the outlet notes.Ukrainian judge calls it “most important case in ECHR history”Ukrainian judge at the ECHR, Mykola Gnatovskyy, called the ruling historic and possibly the most significant in the court’s history. In a Facebook post shortly after the decision was announced, Gnatovskyy wrote that the judgment, which spans nearly 500 pages (excluding appendices), will have lasting legal and political impact.“History will show the importance of the decision,” he said. “Today, I will just thank fate for the opportunity to be part of this Court and draw attention to the logic that guided the Court in assessing specific complaints and interpreting the Convention.”He emphasized that Russia's actions in Ukraine were deemed unprecedented in the history of the Council of Europe — not only for their scale and brutality, but also for the ideological justification behind them. The court noted the threatening statements by Russian leaders against Ukraine’s sovereignty, independence, and even its right to exist, describing them as a danger to peace and democracy in Europe.Gnatovskyy highlighted that no other conflict previously examined by the ECHR had provoked such a unified international response or such decisive action from the Council of Europe.He concluded by noting the Court’s fundamental role: to assess whether the respondent state's actions violated the European Convention on Human Rights, interpreting its provisions in light of the Council of Europe’s founding ideals — peace, justice, and international cooperation.