ICJ: Ukraine case vs Russia can proceed

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AFP) — The United Nations’ top court said Friday a case brought by Ukraine against Russia over the brutal 2022 invasion could go ahead after ruling it had jurisdiction over most of the points made by Kyiv.

Ukraine filed a suit at the International Court of Justice, disputing Russia’s accusation that Kyiv is committing genocide against pro-Russian people in the country’s east and arguing that Moscow’s use of “genocide” as a pretext for invasion went against the 1948 UN Genocide Convention.

In a preliminary ruling in March 2022, the ICJ sided with Ukraine and ordered Russia to halt its invasion immediately.

But Russia objected to this judgement, saying the ICJ, which decides on disputes between states, had no legal right to decide in this case.

The ICJ Friday tossed out Moscow’s argument, saying it did indeed have jurisdiction to rule on Ukraine’s argument that “there is no credible evidence that Ukraine is responsible for committing genocide,” over which Russia justified its invasion.

Ukraine’s lead lawyer Anton Korynevych declared the ICJ ruling a “victory for Ukraine” and hailed the fact that the case will now continue.

“It is important that the court will decide on the issue that Ukraine is not responsible for some mythical genocide that the Russian Federation falsely alleged Ukraine has been committing since 2014 in Donbas,” he told reporters.

Ukraine had also claimed in its ICJ submission that Russia’s use of force during the invasion was itself in contravention of the Genocide Convention.

The ICJ said it did not have competence to decide on this part of the case.

The court also said it did not have the power to rule on another point raised by Ukraine — that Moscow’s recognition of the separatist regions of Lugansk and Donetsk breached the Convention.

This is the second major case at the ICJ concerning the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

The ICJ ruled Wednesday in a separate case filed by Ukraine alleging that Russia financially backed separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine for years before the invasion.

The court mostly sided with Russia in that case, rejecting most of Ukraine’s requests and saying that Moscow had only failed to investigate possible breaches of terrorism financing law.

JIM WATSON/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE PASTOR Charles Jackson of Brookland Baptist Church gets his hair trimmed at Toliver’s Mane Event Barber Shop in Columbia, South Carolina by its 78-year-old owner Herbert Toliver. United States President Joe Biden is campaigning in the state and expects to count on for support from Black voters who gave him the Democratic primary win in 2020. Now, a number of polls have shown that Biden is losing ground against likely Republican rival Donald Trump with the Black voters who propelled him to the White House. Kyiv sees ruling as victory in bid to refute Moscow’s genocide accusation.