The ICJ said in a statement that it “rejects all other submissions” submitted by Ukraine.
The Hague:
The United Nations’ top court on Wednesday largely rejected Ukrainian accusations that Russia funded “terrorism” in eastern Ukraine, saying only that Moscow had failed to investigate alleged violations.
Kyiv accuses Moscow of being a “terrorist state” whose support for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine is a harbinger of a full-scale invasion in 2022.
It wants Russia to compensate all civilians involved in the conflict, as well as the victims of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, which was shot down over eastern Ukraine.
But the International Court of Justice (ICJ) dismissed most of Ukraine’s requests, ruling only that Russia “failed to take steps to investigate… the facts concerning persons suspected of committing crimes”.
The ICJ said in a statement that it “rejects all other submissions” submitted by Ukraine.
The case occurred before Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The International Court of Justice will decide on Friday whether it has the authority to rule on another case from the war.
The court said that under the terms of the International Convention on the Financing of Terrorism, only cash transfers could be considered support for suspected terrorist groups.
The court ruled that this “does not include the means used to commit terrorist acts, including weapons or training camps”.
“The alleged supply of weapons to various armed groups operating in Ukraine … therefore does not fall within the substantive scope of the ICSFT Convention,” the court said.
“law”
Russia has also been accused of violating international conventions on racial discrimination over its treatment of the Tatar minority and Ukrainian speakers in occupied Crimea.
The court held that Russia did not take sufficient measures to promote education in Ukraine.
The case began in 2017, with lengthy exchanges in the judicial halls of the International Court of Justice and thousands of pages of documents submitted to the judges.
This is part of Ukraine’s “legal” strategy against its opponents, which has also dragged Moscow to court over maritime law and alleged human rights violations.
During a hearing in the case, Alexander Shulkin, Russia’s ambassador to the Netherlands, accused Ukraine of “blatant lies and false accusations … even to this court.”
Ukraine’s top diplomat Anton Korinevich countered that Russia was trying to “wipe us off the map.”
“Beginning in 2014, Russia illegally occupied Crimea and then launched a campaign of cultural erasure against Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars,” Korinevich said.
In 2017, the ICJ rejected Kyiv’s initial request for emergency measures to stop Russia from funding separatists.
The International Court of Justice, based in The Hague, adjudicates disputes between states but is often confused with the International Criminal Court (ICC), which prosecutes individuals for war crimes.
Its rulings are final and cannot be appealed, but it has little power to enforce them.
For example, a month after tanks rolled across the border, it issued an emergency ruling ordering Russia to halt the incursion, but to no avail.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
