The UN International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague on Wednesday largely rejected a 2017 case brought by Ukraine to the UN’s top court accusing Russia of financing terrorism by supporting pro-Moscow rebels in eastern Ukraine.

Judges of the ICJ also mostly rejected accusations of discrimination against Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars, considering that these accusations by Ukraine were not sufficiently substantiated, reports the German news agency DPA, as reported by Agerpres.

However, the judges said Moscow violated a 2017 interim ruling that obliges both sides to do everything possible to avoid an escalation of the conflict.

In February 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It’s still going almost two years later.

Russia rejected the accusations put forward by Kyiv at the IC process, calling them “propaganda” and “lies”.

Court decisions are final and binding.

Legal certificate for Kyiv

The Reuters agency, on the other hand, reports that the judges of the Supreme Court of the United Nations established on Wednesday that Russia has violated the provisions of the UN anti-terrorist treatybut declined to comment on Kyiv’s accusations that Moscow was responsible for the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014.

In the same decision, judges of the International Court of Justice recognized that Russia violated the anti-discrimination agreement by not supporting Ukrainian-language education in Crimea after the annexation of the peninsula in 2014.

These decisions are a legal failure for Kyiv. The court rejected Ukraine’s requests to pay reparations for both violations and only obliged Russia to comply with the treaties, Reuters notes.

Ukraine filed a case with the International Court of Justice, also known as the World Court, in 2017, accusing Russia of violating an anti-terrorism treaty by funding pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.

The court’s judges said Moscow violated a UN anti-terrorism treaty by failing to investigate credible allegations that certain funds were sent from Russia to Ukraine to potentially finance terrorist activities.

Why the ICJ refused to rule on the downing of MH17

The 16-judge panel ordered Russia to investigate any credible allegations of terrorist financing, but rejected Kyiv’s request for compensation.

The court refused to rule on the downing of MH17, saying that the terrorist financing violations related only to monetary and financial support, not the alleged supply of arms or training by Ukraine.

Ukraine claimed that in the case of MH17, Russia provided the missile system that brought down the plane, but did not claim financial support in this case.

At a hearing at the Hague Tribunal last June, Moscow rejected Kyiv’s accusations that it financed and controlled pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, calling them fabrications and “outright lies.”

In the nearly seven-year-old case, Kyiv has accused Russia of arming and funding pro-Russian forces, including the rebels who shot down MH17 in July 2014, killing all 298 passengers and crew.

In November 2022, a Dutch court sentenced two Russians and a Ukrainian to life imprisonment in absentia for their involvement in the disaster.

Decisions of the International Court of Justice cannot be enforced

In Crimea, Ukraine stated that Russia is trying to erase the culture of ethnic Tatars and Ukrainians. The court rejected all claims against the Tatars, but recognized that Moscow had not done enough to support education in the Ukrainian language.

The court’s decisions are final and cannot be appealed, but it has no way to enforce them, Reuters noted.

On Friday, the International Court of Justice will rule in another case in which Ukraine accused Moscow of misapplying the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide to justify its invasion on February 24, 2022.

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