To payoff

On October 21, Ukraine filed a lawsuit against Russia with the World Trade Organization (WTO) for restrictions on the supply of Ukrainian railway equipment.

While there is a lull in the Donbass, Kyiv, according to the statement of Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, is preparing for a “legal war” with Moscow. A little earlier, on October 15, the same Yatsenyuk recalled that two cases “Ukraine against Russia” are already under consideration in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR): the first concerns the Russian annexation of Crimea, the second concerns interventions in the South-East of Ukraine. Plus, they are preparing to file cases from Ukrainian business entities affected by the occupation of Donbass and the annexation of Crimea.

According to the head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Pavel Klimkin, Kyiv hopes to sue Moscow "billion sums." “Moreover, billions of dollars can be on various claims. I think that as a result, the amount of some claims may, in order of magnitude, be equal to the “YUKOS case,” the minister noted. As you know, Yukos in The Hague sued Russia for $50 billion.

The same figure surfaced with Yatsenyuk, who made it clear that Kyiv estimates the amount of losses from the annexation of Crimea alone at 1 trillion hryvnia (about $50 billion). At the same time, Yatsenyuk clarified that these are preliminary figures: "Due to the fact that Russian aggression continues, the final amount of damages that we will demand from the Russian Federation will appear already at the stage of consideration of the case in the ECHR." But even in preliminary calculations, the prime minister made it clear, the cost of natural resources "belonging to Ukraine and now located in the annexed or occupied territories is taken into account, which is why these resources cannot be used."

Both of the above-mentioned cases - on Crimea and Donbass - are in the Strasbourg Court at the initial stage of consideration. Before January 1, 2016, Russia must submit to Strasbourg its explanations on both cases, and only after that "the process will start." It is possible that by the time the verdict is passed, both in Russia and Ukraine, the central government will have already changed, and the international situation will be different.

Not only that: in Donbass, the head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry announced the opening of a new legal front: “There is the International Court of Justice. But no one has yet applied there with claims regarding non-compliance with the Convention on the Financing of Terrorism. If we prove that the state of Russia has financed and is financing terrorism, this could lead Russia to absolutely unforeseen circumstances.”