(The Hague) The UN’s top court on Wednesday rejected allegations by Kyiv that Russia had “financed terrorism” since 2014 in eastern Ukraine, concluding that the supply of weapons or camps training did not fall within the scope of the legislation.
Kyiv has called Moscow a “terrorist state” and claimed Russian 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.
The court this time declared that only money transfers could be considered support for suspected terrorist groups under 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 application” of the convention, the ICJ declared.
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 that killed 298 people.
The lead Ukrainian lawyer in the case, Anton Korynevych, said the verdict was “of great value.”
“For us, it is a very important day, because it is a judgment which says that the Russian Federation has violated international law,” he declared to journalists after the hearing.
“This is the very first time that Russia has been called a violator of international law,” he added.
“Cultural eradication”
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.
“From 2014, Russia illegally occupied Crimea, then engaged in a campaign of cultural eradication, targeting ethnic Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars,” insisted Mr. Korynevych.
The court in 2017 rejected Kyiv’s request 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 adjudicate 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, which is still ongoing.