Ukraine has launched a case against Russia at the UN’s highest court, accusing Moscow of planning genocide and asking the court to halt the incursion and order Russia to pay reparations, the court said on Sunday.
The case, filed on Saturday, asks the International Court of Justice in The Hague for “provisional measures” ordering Moscow to “immediately suspend the military operations” that were launched on February 24.
The case says Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine based on false claims of acts of genocide in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions of eastern Ukraine, and is now planning genocidal acts in Ukraine.
Ukraine “emphatically denies that genocide happened in the eastern regions” and says it filed 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", the court said.
It will schedule a hearing soon to hear the provisional measures request. Orders by the court are legally binding but not always adhered to.
If the court is found to have jurisdiction and the case goes ahead, it will probably take years to reach a conclusion. A decision on so-called provisional measures, however, could come far sooner.
The world court already has a case brought by Ukraine linked to Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and Russian funding of rebels in eastern Ukraine.
Ukrainian fighters test an automatic grenade launcher taken from a destroyed Russian infantry vehicle in Kharkiv. AFP
Refugees from Ukraine rest after arriving at a railway station in Przemysl, Poland. AP
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Vitali Klitschko, Mayor of Kiev and former heavyweight boxing champion, right, and his brother, Wladimir. AP
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks to the nation from Kiev. AP
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Sviatoslav Yurash, 26, a politician from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Servant of the People party, poses with his assault rifle as he patrols Kiev. AFP
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A refugee who fled conflict in Ukraine rests at a railway station after arriving in Zahony, Hungary. AP
A refugee boy who fled Ukraine cries at the railway station in Zahony, Hungary. AP
Civil defence members eat during a break at City Hall in Kiev. AP
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Apartments damaged by shelling in Kharkiv. AFP
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Police detain a demonstrator during a protest against Russia's incursion into Ukraine in St Petersburg. AP
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Russian ground forces approaching Nova Kakhovka, southern Ukraine. AP
A woman holds her daughter's hand as they arrive by bus from the Polish-Ukrainian border. Getty
A man drives his car full of food supplies to deliver to the Ukrainian side of the border, where thousands wait to enter Poland. Getty
Refugees arrive with buses from the Medyka pedestrian border crossing, in Przemsyl, eastern Poland. AFP
People gather to catch a train and leave Ukraine for neighboring countries at the railway station in Lviv, western Ukraine. AP
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Helena, right, and her brother Bodia, left, from Lviv, wait at the Medyka border crossing in eastern Poland. AFP
A Ukrainian soldier walks past debris of a burning military truck, on a street in Kiev. AP
People run for cover during the shelling on the city of Kiev. AP
A child refugee who fled the conflict in Ukraine covers her face in the event hall of a hotel offering shelter in Siret, Romania. AP
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy holding a briefing in Kyiv. He said that Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev and Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan have suggested talks with Russia, which 'can only be welcomed'. AFP
Ukraine's ambassador to the US, Oksana Markarova, at a news conference in the embassy of Ukraine, Washington. AP
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Ukrainian refugees arrive in Warsaw by train from Kiev. EPA
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A woman sleeps on chairs in a Kiev bomb shelter. AP
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Ukrainian servicemen take positions at a military airbase in the Kyiv region. Reuters
The UN court said in a preliminary ruling in 2017 that it expected Moscow and Kiev to work at implementing the Minsk peace agreements that were designed to bring peace to conflict-ravaged eastern Ukraine.
The court hears disputes between nations over matters of law, unlike the International Criminal Court, also based in The Hague, that holds people criminally responsible for offences including war crimes and crimes against humanity.
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The ICC prosecutor, Karim Khan, said on Friday that he was closely monitoring events in Ukraine.
Mr Khan warned the combatants that he has jurisdiction over any genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Ukraine dating back to February 2014.
“Any person who commits such crimes, including by ordering, inciting, or contributing in another manner to the commission of these crimes, may be liable to prosecution before the court,” he said.
Mr Khan said it was “imperative that all parties to the conflict respect their obligations under international humanitarian law".