Ukraine has decided to take its case against Russia’s actions in the east to the UN International Court of Justice (ICJ), the international body’s top judicial venue. Although the case won’t change the facts on the ground, it could impact the propaganda and hybrid war in the frozen conflict.
Kiev will seek to convince the UN’s top court Monday that Moscow is “sponsoring terrorism” in the Donbass region and Ukraine’s representatives will also ask the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to take emergency measures ordering Russia to stop its alleged funnelling of money, weapons and personnel into the east, and to halt what it called “discrimination” of minorities in Russian-occupied Crimea, reports AFP.
Ukraine is also seeking compensation from Russia for the deaths and destruction caused by the support of the pro-Russian rebels in the region.
Kiev says Moscow has “largely failed” to respond to its efforts to negotiate a resolution in the dispute and that “further negotiations would be futile.”
Ukraine now “respectfully requests the court to adjudge and declare that the Russian Federation bears international responsibility by virtue of its sponsorship of terrorism… for the acts of terrorism committed by its proxies in Ukraine,” it said in papers before the court, reports AFP.