Russia boycotted hearings at the U.N.’s highest court on Monday during which Ukraine is seeking an emergency order to halt hostilities, arguing that Moscow has falsely applied genocide law to justify its invasion.
Hearings began at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) without legal representation for Russia.
Ukrainian envoy Anton Korynevych said the fact that Russia’s seats are empty speaks loudly, adding that they are not in this court of law but rather are on a battlefield waging an aggressive war.
The court said it regretted Russia’s non-attendance. A hearing initially set for Tuesday for Russia to present its case is expected to be cancelled but in earlier cases before the ICJ where a party did not show up to present its side the court ruled without input from such parties.
Countries usually, but do not always, follow the court’s orders, which are legally binding. A spokesperson for the Russian Embassy in the Netherlands did not reply to a request for comment.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Russia’s “special military action” is needed “to protect people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide” – meaning those whose first or only language is Russian – in eastern Ukraine.
Russian-backed separatists have fought Ukrainian forces in two eastern breakaway regions of the country since 2014, with some 15,000 people killed, according to the government in Kyiv.
A leading association of genocide scholars has backed Ukraine and Western powers’ view that Russia was misappropriating the term genocide to describe the treatment of Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine.
Discover more from LN247
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
