On Monday, Russia attacked Ukraine at the UN International Court of Justice (ICJ), where Ukrainians opened a lawsuit accusing the Russians of unjustifiably using allegations of genocide as a pretext for an invasion launched in February 2022, AFP and Agerpres reported.

Before the International Court of Justice, one of Moscow’s representatives, Gennady Kuzmin, accused Kyiv of being “far from the truth” when he claims that Russia invokes the UN Genocide Convention as a pretext for war.

AFP reminds that Russian President Vladimir Putin justified the invasion of Ukraine, including by accusing Ukrainians of genocide against Russian-speakers in the east of their country.

On February 26, 2022, two days after the attack of Russian troops on the territory of Ukraine, Kyiv turned to the International Court of Justice, “categorically” rejecting the idea of ​​genocide and asserting that this excuse by Moscow violates the UN Convention on Genocide of 1948.

Kuzmin argued that simple “declarations” of genocide cannot be prohibited by international law, including the aforementioned Convention, and claimed that the Ukrainian government is “Russophobic and neo-Nazi.” He is the first Russian diplomat who appealed to the appropriate court in this case.

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“As for the concerns expressed about the threat of genocide, as I noted, they should not be surprising, given the policies of the Kyiv regime, firmly rooted in history, Nazi doctrines and practices,” Moscow’s representative told the magistrates of the International Court of Justice, just a few meters from the present high-ranking officials of Ukraine.

Kuzmin’s conclusion was that Ukraine’s legal position “cannot be sustained” and “contradicts the established judicial practice” of the International Court of Justice.

The lawsuit is about the legitimacy of the cease-fire order issued by the Court, the highest body of the United Nations. In March last year, the IC took the side of Ukraine, demanding that Russia “immediately suspend” military operations on the territory of Ukraine.

Hearing at the UN International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague (Photo: Remko de Waal / AFP / Profimedia)

Russia claims that the International Court of Justice has no jurisdiction because the Ukrainian case does not fall under the scope of the Genocide Convention. In fact, Moscow still has not even sent its representatives to the hearing, citing the fact that it did not have time to prepare its position.

On Tuesday, Ukraine must respond to the arguments presented by Russia on Monday. More than 30 states, Western allies of Ukraine, will be able to intervene.

The hearing will end on September 27, after which the judges will issue a decision on the jurisdiction of the ICJ. They could make a decision after a longer period, even several months.

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