The ambassador on special assignment of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Anton Korynevych spoke before the UN International Court of Justice in The Hague. He stated that Russia had violated the Convention on the Prevention of Genocide by using it as a pretext for the invasion.
"Babel" correspondent Oksana Kovalenko reported this from the scene.
Ambassador Anton Korynevych spoke at the hearing on whether the court has jurisdiction to consider the genocide case.
"The international community created the Convention to protect people, and Russia is using it to destroy," he noted.
And he added that on Monday, during the speech before the court, the Russian delegation twisted the facts.
"Yesterday, Russia said that this dispute has nothing to do with the Convention on the Prevention of Genocide, because officials simply used the word genocide. This is one of the few examples of lies that Russia has told," the ambassador said.
Korynevych reminded that since 2014, Russia has been constantly accusing Ukraine of genocide. And on February 24, 2022, the president of the Russian Federation used "this absurd accusation" with the statement that Russia should act to stop the genocide allegedly committed by Ukraine in Donbas.
The Ukrainian ambassador noted that the Russian delegation repeated statements about the "coup and Nazis" in Ukraine.
"This is a new lie. The representative of the Russian Federation even said that Ukraine was planning a ʼfinal solutionʼ. We all know what those creepy words mean. How can a representative of Russia utter these words and then deny that there is a dispute about genocide? This case should be considered on its merits," Korynevych stressed.
According to him, Russia violates international law and the decision of the UN International Court of Justice, which last year issued an order to the Russian Federation to stop any military actions, but it refused to comply with it.
"Blocking Ukrainian ports and threatening international shipping, Russia has destroyed or taken ʼhostageʼ millions of tons of grain, exacerbating global food shortages in Africa and beyond. The defiant behavior of the Russian Federation is also an attack on the authority of this court. Every missile that Russia fires at our cities, it fires in defiance of this court. Now the court has an opportunity to overcome such disobedience. You have the authority to ensure that international obligations make sense," Korynevych addressed the judges.
- Ukraine filed a genocide lawsuit against the Russian Federation on February 26, 2022, two days after the start of a full-scale Russian invasion. The Kremlin accused Kyiv of "genocide" of Donbas residents and used it as a basis for the invasion on February 24, 2022.
- On September 18, the UN International Court of Justice in The Hague resumed hearings in Ukraineʼs lawsuit against Russia regarding the Convention on the Prevention of the Crime of Genocide.
- The Russian delegation had the floor on September 18 and tried to prove to the court that the court does not have jurisdiction to consider the case, and the subject of the dispute is allegedly absent.