THE HAGUE – Ukraine insisted Tuesday that the United Nations’ absolute best court has jurisdiction to hear a case alleging that Moscow abused the genocide conference to justify launching its devastating invasion final 12 months.
Kyiv needs judges on the International Court of Justice to order Russia to halt its assaults and pay reparations. But it seems that not likely Moscow would comply. Russia has flouted a binding intervening time order issued by means of the court in March final 12 months to finish its invasion.
“Russia’s defiance is also an attack on this court’s authority. Every missile that Russia fires at our cities, it fires in defiance of this court,” the chief of Ukraine’s prison crew, Anton Korynevych, informed the 16-judge panel.
Kyiv filed the case in a while after Russia invaded Ukraine. It argues that the assault was once in accordance with false claims of acts of genocide within the Luhansk and Donetsk areas of jap Ukraine.
“Russia is waging war against my country in the name of this terrible lie that Ukraine is committing genocide against its own people,” Korynevych said.
“This lie is Russia’s pretext for aggression and conquest. Russia has presented no credible evidence. It cannot. In reality, Russia has turned the Genocide Convention on its head.”
Russia defined its objections to the case on Monday, with the chief of Moscow’s prison crew, Gennady Kuzmin, calling it “hopelessly flawed and at odds with the longstanding jurisprudence of this court.”
Ukraine’s case is based on the 1948 Genocide Convention, which both Kyiv and Moscow have ratified. The convention includes a provision that nations which have a dispute based on its provisions can take that dispute to the World Court. Russia denies that there is a dispute, a position Ukraine rejects.
The International Court of Justice hears disputes between nations, unlike the International Criminal Court, also based in The Hague, which holds individuals criminally responsible for offenses including war crimes and crimes against humanity.
In March, the ICC issued a battle crimes arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of accountability for the kidnapping of Ukrainian youngsters.
In an extraordinary display of world unity, 32 of Ukraine’s allies will make statements Wednesday in strengthen of Kyiv’s prison arguments.
The court’s panel of international judges will likely take weeks or months to reach a decision on whether or not the case can proceed. If it does, a final ruling is likely years away.
In his opening statement, Korynevych outlined what is at stake for his country, telling judges that “573 days in the past, Russia introduced a brutal, complete scale army attack on Ukraine. This is a battle of annihilation. Russia denies the very lifestyles of the Ukrainian other people. And needs to wipe us off the map.”
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