On 23 June 2022, the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine acting on behalf of the State of Ukraine filed the first part of Ukraine’s substantive submissions in its application before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, to address the damages caused by the violations committed by the Russian Federation over the first phase of full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine will continue making subsequent submissions, including the ones responding to Russia's violations after 7 April 2022.
Asters together with Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan as a lead counsel and the team of individual barristers led by Timothy Otty QC and Guglielmo Verdirame QC, are advising the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine in the inter-state proceedings being brought by Ukraine against the Russian Federation before the European Court of Human Rights. It is great privilege and honor for Asters and the entire counsel team to be entrusted with work on this case, which is done pro bono.
The proceedings concern, inter alia, Ukraine's claims for the monetary compensation by the Russian Federation payable to all individual parties injured by a multitude of violations of the most fundamental rights protected by the Convention, including violations of the right to life (Article 2), the prohibition on torture (Article 3), the right to liberty and security (Article 5), the right to respect for private and family life (Article 8), the rights to freedom of thought and expression (Articles 9 and 10) and the right to protection of property (Article 1, Protocol 1).
The damage resulting from the Russia's illegal invasion of the sovereign territory of Ukraine only over the first phase commencing on 24 February 2022 until 7 April 2022, for which Ukraine will seek redress, amounts to at least USD 80 billion.
Asters team that contributes to various issues of the case, with a focus on claims for the compensations arising out of violations of Article 1 of Protocol 1 of the Convention guaranteeing the right to property, is led by both Co-Heads of the International Arbitration and Cross-Border Litigation Practice, Oleksiy Didkovskiy, Co-Managing Partner, and Markiyan Kliuchkovskyi, Partner, and includes Oksana Legka, Counsel, Oleksandr Volkov, Counsel, and Nataliia Savula, Associate, Valeriia Yakimova, Junior Associate, and Oleksandr Lutsenko, Junior Associate.
Asters is the largest law firm in Ukraine with offices in Kyiv, Washington D.C., London and Brussels. Chambers Europe 2022 recognizes 21 lawyers of Asters – the largest number of the renowned practitioners in a single Ukrainian law firm.