The International Court of Justice of the United Nations in The Hague concluded hearings on the suit initiated by Ukraine. Kiev demands from Russia to stop financing “terrorist” groups on the territories of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, as well sa supplying them with weapons. Moscow insists that the consideration of such cases does not belong to the jurisdiction of the UN court, and denies its involvement in the weapons supplying to militiamen in the Donbass. The court intends to make a verdict before the end of April.
“The hearings on Ukraine’s request for temporary measures and the application of the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination were concluded today. Now the court will begin its consideration”, said in a message on the website of the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
During the hearings, two full days were spent on studying the claims of Ukraine. The same amount of time received the representatives of Russia to justify their position. Ukraine has put forward four basic requirements: to oblige Russia to effectively control its border, to stop supplying arms to the Ukrainian territory, not to support illegal armed formations, and to refrain from any acts of ethnic discrimination in the Crimea.
“We have prepared a thorough additional evidence base already for the one that was provided during our presentation on Monday. The evidence base, both in terms of financing terrorism, and regarding the persecution, discrimination of the Crimean Tatars and Ukrainians in the Crimea, is very large, and the judges will have enough evidences to understand what is really happening in the Crimea and in the east”, 112 TV channel quotes the words of the head of the Secretariat of the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Bogdan Kriklivenko.
The Russian side have prepared an 800-page report. The interests of the country were represented by German and British lawyers.
During the meeting, they insisted that Ukraine did not provide substantive evidence of the need to consider this case in the UN International Court of Justice.
The remaining claims of Ukraine also raised questions. In particular, the English lawyer Samuel Wordsworth stressed that all evidence of arms supplies to the militia in the Donbass are not specific. “Russia says that on the eve Ukraine did not bring any fundamental evidence that Russia exactly is supplying weapons to the Donbass”, he said.
In addition, on the first day of the evidence submission by the Russian side, the director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s department for new challenges and threats Ilya Rogachyov said that in the summer of 2014, 17 Ukrainian Buks were in the Donbass.
Ukraine was also called upon to clearly articulate its claims in the case of a shot down Boeing of the Malaysia Airlines. On July 17, 2014, the Boeing 777 flew on the route Amsterdam – Kuala Lumpur and was shot down in the east of the Donetsk region. 283 passengers and 15 crew members were on board. All of them died. The investigation continues.
The ban on the activity of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people is caused solely by motives of fighting extremism in the Crimea, Matthias Forto added to Wordsworth’s words. “Ukraine has never asked Russia to lift the ban on the Mejlis”, he said. According to the expert, Kiev has never even tried to discuss this issue.
The Ukrainian side uses the International Court of Justice as a platform for voicing politicized accusations, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement: “Russia has stated its position that Ukraine uses the court as a platform for voicing politicized accusations that go beyond the jurisdiction of the court, showed evidence that Ukraine did not properly substantiate its claims, and also set forth an objective picture of the situation in the southeast of Ukraine and in the Crimea”.
It is planned that the verdict will be handed down by the end of April. Russia would recognize the decision of the International Court of Justice in The Hague whatever it may be, because it is a party to the proceedings, Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said.