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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday. Photo: EPA-EFE/UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE
Ukraine has asked the UN’s top court, the International Court of Justice, to begin proceedings against Russia, accusing Moscow of falsely interpreting the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in order to support its arguments for an invasion.
Ukraine argued that “the Russian Federation has falsely claimed that acts of genocide have occurred in the Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts of Ukraine, and on that basis recognised the so-called ‘Donetsk People’s Republic’ and ‘Luhansk People’s Republic’, and then declared and implemented a ‘special military operation’ against Ukraine”, said a press release issued by the ICJ in The Hague on Sunday.
The Kyiv authorities said that they launched the case to “establish that Russia has no lawful basis to take action in and against Ukraine for the purpose of preventing and punishing any purported genocide”, according to the ICJ.
Ukraine’s request to the ICJ described Moscow’s allegations as “an absurd lie” and called on the Hague court to hold a hearing as early as possible this week.
“This court must urgently protect Ukraine pending its resolution of this dispute. Ukraine is currently facing catastrophic and wholly unprovoked military attacks, and every day that these actions continue, the human rights of the Ukrainian people are gravely violated,” it argued.
Announcing the launch of the case against Russia on Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged the ICJ to make “an urgent decision ordering Russia to cease military activity now”.
“Russia must be held accountable for manipulating the notion of genocide to justify aggression,” Zelensky wrote on Twitter.
Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine last week, claiming that Russian speakers in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions in the east of the country were under threat and saying that it needed to ‘demilitarise’ the country, which has taken a pro-Western stance in recent years.
The Russian invasion has been widely condemned as a breach of international law.
The invasion came after Moscow recognised the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic, two self-proclaimed, Russian-sponsored territories which have been fighting the Kyiv government since 2014, as independent states, causing an international outcry.
