The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on June 26 granted the petition of Kyiv and united suits on Ukraine's claims regarding violations by Russia of the Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms into two proceedings - on Crimea and on Donbas, Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine Ivan Lishchyna has said.

"The ECHR has agreed on our motion and united the proceeding of interstate declarations regarding violations of the ECHR by Russia into two large proceedings: on Crimea and on Donbas. So, instead of five cases of Ukraine against the Russian Federation there are three ones (an application for the removal of children from Donbas to Russia remained in independent proceeding)," he wrote on his Facebook page on Wednesday night.

Earlier, Ukraine filed five lawsuits against Russia. Two of them concern the annexation of Crimea and the violation of human rights on the peninsula, three others – on violations in Donbas, including a lawsuit regarding the transfer of a group of children from the region to Russia. In May 2018, the Chamber of the ECHR handed four cases "Ukraine vs. Russia" to the jurisdiction of the Grand Chamber.