HAGUE. Holland – Russia on Monday denounced as an “abuse of process” a Ukrainian case alleging that Moscow abused the Genocide Convention to justify its invasion, as Russian lawyers tried to convince the UN’s top court to throw it out.
As a team of lawyers presented Moscow’s objections to the case, the leader of Russia’s legal team at the International Court of Justice, Gennady Kuzmin, told the 16-judge panel that Ukraine’s case seeking to stop the invasion “is irreparably flawed.” and contrary to the ancient jurisprudence of this court.”
The Ukraine case, he asserted, is “a flagrant lack of respect for the proper administration of justice and constitutes an abuse of process.”
The Ukraine case argues that the invasion was based on false allegations of genocide in the Ukrainian regions of Luhansk and Donetsk, and that Moscow was planning genocidal acts in Ukraine.
Ukraine asserts that “Russia has subverted the meaning of the Genocide Convention, using a false claim of genocide to justify actions that constitute grave violations of the human rights of millions of residents across Ukraine.”
Russia’s lawyers insist that the court has no jurisdiction and that the anti-genocide convention cannot be used to regulate a nation’s use of force. Ukraine’s legal team will respond on Tuesday by asking judges to move forward with hearings to hear the substance of the arguments.
In his preview, Kuzmin repeated Russia’s claims that there were “neo-Nazis” in Kiev, and compared the Russian attack on Ukraine to the 1999 NATO bombing of Serbia, which sought to end Belgrade’s military campaign against Kosovo. .
Ukraine brought the case to the court based on the 1948 Genocide Convention, which was ratified by both Moscow and kyiv. In an interim ruling made in March 2022, the court ordered Russia to stop its invasion, a mandatory ruling that Moscow ignored and continued its devastating attacks on Ukrainian cities and towns.
Another lawyer for Russia, Sienho Yee, said Russia did not use the anti-genocide convention to justify its military actions in Ukraine and that such actions “are based on the right to self-determination and its inherent right to self-defense.”
In an unprecedented show of support for Ukraine, 32 allies of Ukraine – including Canada, Australia and all members of the European Union except Hungary will give presentations in support of Ukraine’s arguments. The United States also asked to speak in support of Ukraine, but the court rejected the request for a technical reason.
