The highest court of the UN has delivered its decision. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Wednesday (January 31) rejected Kiev's allegations that Russia had "financed terrorism" since 2014 in eastern Ukraine, concluding that deliveries of weapons or camps training did not fall within the scope of the legislation.
kyiv has called Russia a "terrorist state" and claimed that Moscow's support for separatist rebels was a harbinger of the February 2022 invasion.
This case predates Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The ICJ will say on Friday whether it has jurisdiction to rule in separate proceedings regarding that war.
No money transfers
The court this time declared that only money transfers could be considered support for suspected terrorist groups, under the terms of the international convention on the financing of terrorism.
This “does not include the means used to commit acts of terrorism, including weapons or training camps,” the court ruled.
“Therefore, the alleged supply of weapons to various armed groups operating in Ukraine [...] does not fall within the material scope” of the convention, the ICJ said.
As a result, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which sits in The Hague (Netherlands), rejected most of Ukraine's arguments. She only criticized Russia for not having taken “measures to investigate” possible violations of the convention for the suppression of the financing of terrorism.
The ICJ “rejects all other arguments put forward by Ukraine,” it said in its judgment.
Ukraine was seeking compensation for attacks attributed to separatists, including the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 in July 2014 over Ukraine, which killed 298 people.
Racial discrimination
In addition to blaming Moscow for supporting separatist rebels, kyiv stressed that Russia's treatment of the Tatar minority and Ukrainian speakers in occupied Crimea violated an international convention on racial discrimination.
Regarding this, the ICJ found that Russia had not taken sufficient measures to allow education in Ukrainian.
Ukraine took the case to the ICJ in 2017, claiming Russia violated UN conventions on terrorist financing and racial discrimination.
kyiv is resorting to “blatant lies” against Russia, “even in this court,” Russian Ambassador to the Netherlands Alexander Shulgin said during hearings in June.
Moscow is trying to “erase” Ukraine “from the map,” retorted Ukrainian representative Anton Korynevych.
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“From 2014, Russia illegally occupied Crimea, then engaged in a campaign of cultural eradication targeting ethnic Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars,” insisted Anton Korynevych.
The court rejected Kiev's request in 2017 to urgently order Russia to end its alleged support for separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine, however ordering Moscow to ensure the rights of Ukrainians and Tatars in Crimea.
The orders of the ICJ, created after World War II to resolve disputes between countries, are legally binding and final. However, it has no means of enforcing them.
The court, for example, ordered Russia in March 2022 to suspend its offensive in Ukraine. This is still in progress.
With AFP
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