Published: 01:13 PM, 31 January 2024
Top UN court to rule on Ukraine-Russia 'terrorism' case
The United Nations' top court will hand down its verdict on Wednesday in a case brought by Ukraine against Russia for alleged "terrorism financing" and "racial discrimination" after its annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Kyiv has accused Moscow of being a "terrorist state" whose support for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine was a harbinger of the full-fledged 2022 invasion.
It wants Russia to compensate all civilians caught up in the conflict, as well as victims from Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which was shot down over eastern Ukraine.
The case predates Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) will decide on Friday whether it has jurisdiction to rule in a separate case over that war.
Russia is also in the dock for alleged breaches of an international convention on racial discrimination due to its treatment of the Tatar minority and Ukrainian speakers in occupied Crimea.
During hearings on the case, Alexander Shulgin, Russia's ambassador to the Netherlands, accused Ukraine of "blatant lies and false accusations... even to this court".
Top Ukrainian diplomat Anton Korynevych retorted that Russia was trying to "wipe us off the map".
"Beginning in 2014, Russia illegally occupied Crimea and then engaged in a campaign of cultural erasure, taking aim at ethnic Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars," said Korynevych.
