The ECHR will hear a case regarding the disappearance of Ukrainian children following the occupation of Crimea
On September 22, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) will hold oral hearings in the case of “Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union v. Russia,” which concerns the disappearance of Ukrainian children following the occupation of Crimea.
The case involves ten Ukrainian children who were in children’s institutions in Crimea in 2014.
After Russia established control over the peninsula, the children were forcibly granted Russian citizenship, placed in the Russian adoption system, and their current whereabouts remain unknown.
“It is important to note that this case is inextricably linked to the inter-state cases that Ukraine is pursuing against Russia directly before the ECHR. In the case of Ukraine v. Russia (regarding Crimea), the ECHR confirmed in 2024 the pattern of violations of the Convention on the occupied peninsula, which has been ongoing since 2014. In the case of Ukraine and the Netherlands v. Russia in 2025, the Grand Chamber also considered the abduction of Ukrainian children by the Russian Federation since 2014 in the occupied territories as part of Russia’s systematic crimes,” emphasized Margarita Sokorenko.
She stressed that this case is part of a broader series of international legal proceedings in which Ukraine is seeking to hold Russia accountable for systematic human rights violations, the unlawful transfer, and the disappearance of Ukrainian children in the temporarily occupied territories.
Margarita Sokorenko, the representative of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine for cases before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), announced the date of the hearings.
Earlier, the European Court of Human Rights officially began reviewing two complaints filed by Ukrainian citizen journalist and political prisoner Iryna Danilovych against the Russian Federation. The court has already issued requests for communication and asked the Russian government to submit its observations on the admissibility and merits of the cases.
An investigation by the “Crimea.Realities” project has documented approximately 2,000 confirmed obituaries of Russian servicemen from occupied Crimea who died in the war against Ukraine. The heaviest losses are in Sevastopol, and the proportion of prisoners of war who were forced to participate in combat operations is rising among the dead.
