Ukrainian court refused to recognize Russian aggression against Ukraine
A Ukrainian court has refused to recognize Russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine. This was reported by the initiator of the case, and human rights activist, Stanislav Batrin. He is also head of the “Open Court” project.
According to Batrin, this decision was made by the Shevchenko district court of Kiev on the 12th of May after nearly two years of judicial proceedings. It was also noted that the court had twice refused to open proceedings on the lawsuit. Batrin then went to the appeals court after each refusal and, after winning on both occasions, the case was finally opened. The first judge who dealt with the case later recused himself.
Batrin said that the Presidential Administration of Ukraine actually called for the court not to recognize Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.
“It is important to note that on the 9th of February, the court received a fax from the Presidential Administration. It was signed by Boris Lozhkin and requested a postponement of the hearing ‘in order to create a legal position and to provide an explanation’. Later on the President of Ukraine made his position regarding the issue quite obvious, he simply asked the court to refuse the claim,” Batrin said.
He also said that the Ministry of Internal Affairs refused to provide the court with evidence artifacts of Russia’s aggression.
As early as the 29th of August 2014, Batrin went to the Shevchenko district court to establish the fact that Russia had shown armed aggression towards Ukraine. During the trial, Batrin and volunteers were able to provide more than 1,000 pages of official documents as evidence.
It has been reported that the Security Service of Ukraine, the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, the Ministry of Justice, the General Prosecutor's Office, the Anti-Terrorist Center of the Security Service of Ukraine, the Russian Embassy in Ukraine and the President's administration on behalf of the President of Ukrainian have participated in this case.
The court had previously demanded that the General Prosecutor's Office provide evidence of the crimes of the Russian Federation.
In his article, "War Against Russia; the legal front" in Zerckalo Nedeli, Batrin writes about the details and his views of the case.