Human rights court decides whether to try Russia for MH17
04:15 am | The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) will decide on Wednesday whether to consider Russia’s possible role in the downing of flight MH17. It would be the first time that an international tribunal has ruled on responsibility for the plane crash. Relatives of the 298 passengers on the dead passenger plane, mostly Dutch, await anxiously.
Russia is trying to prevent the human rights court from handling the Netherlands’ complaint. The Kremlin claims it has absolutely nothing to say in eastern Ukraine, from where the missile that killed MH17 was launched, and therefore cannot be held responsible. According to experts, whether this is the case will be the most important question for the court. The other two obstacles, that victims cannot go to a Russian court and that the complaint must be filed on time, seem less significant.
If the ECtHR declares the “state complaint” admissible, then the way is also paved for the thousands of complaints that individual relatives of MH17 and other victims of Russian violence in Ukraine have filed with the court. A verdict on Russia’s culpability for the plane crash could therefore take years.
If the court were to finally convict Russia, it would have great political significance and compensation could also be imposed on Moscow, for example. Although Russia paid little attention to the Strasbourg court’s rulings for years and even officially withdrew from the court last year.
Ukraine is happy that the tanks can be delivered
03:00 | Ukraine is pleased with Germany’s promise that the country will soon have a delivery of Leopard 2 tanks from Poland and possibly other countries, including the Netherlands. This is what an aide to President Volodimir Zelensky said in an initial response to the German government’s decision to allow Poland to ship tanks to Kiev.
The head of Zelensky’s chancellery, Andrei Jermak, wrote in Telegram on Tuesday evening: ‘We will have everything, everything for the recapture of our territories and for the counteroffensive. The tankmen will be happy, as well as the gunners and then the pilots.’ Soon, he said, “everything will be Ukraine again.”
Next month marks one year since the start of the Russian attack on Ukraine.
Rutte: The Netherlands wants to think about supplying tanks to Ukraine
01:00 | The Cabinet is ready to consider supplying modern Leopard 2 main battle tanks to Ukraine. “The decision hasn’t been made yet, but we certainly don’t rule it out,” a spokesman for Prime Minister Mark Rutte told the PA.
The Netherlands has no tanks, but does lease eighteen Leopard 2 tanks from Germany. On Tuesday, Rutte told international media in Brussels that this also means the Netherlands can buy those tanks and give them away if needed. If it makes sense to do it together with other countries, the cabinet is ready to consider it, according to the prime minister.
“I have a lot of sympathy for the Ukrainian issue,” Rutte said. Last week, Minister Wopke Hoekstra (Foreign Affairs) told the House that there are “no taboos” for the cabinet on supplying regular military equipment to Ukrainians.