International Court of Justice to consider Russia’s counterclaim against Ukraine
9 December 12:20
The International Court of Justice in The Hague has accepted Russia’s counterclaim against Ukraine in the case of genocide against the population of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. In a decision dated December 5, the court declared Russia’s complaint on the Convention on the Prevention of Genocide admissible and included it in the proceedings in this case, the ICJ press service said on Monday, December 8, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports citing DW.
At the same time, Ukraine’s motion to dismiss Russia’s counterclaims was not approved. The court stated that the Russian application “is directly related to the subject matter of the other party’s claim”.
It is noted that the parties must state their positions on the merits. The court ordered Ukraine to file a response to the claim by December 7, 2026, and Russia to file a rebuttal by December 7, 2027.
Ukraine’s claim against Russia
In February 2024, the International Court of Justice accepted for consideration Ukraine’s lawsuit against Russia, filed in February 2022 after the start of the full-scale Russian invasion. In the lawsuit, Kyiv accuses Moscow of using the false pretext of the alleged genocide of the Russian-speaking population of eastern Ukraine to start the war.
Announcing the invasion of Ukraine, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin said that the purpose of the war was to “stop genocide” against people living in Donbas. Kyiv then rejected the genocide accusations and went to court. Commenting on the appeal, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy demanded that Moscow be held accountable for manipulating the concept of “genocide” to justify aggression.
At the preliminary hearings, a representative of Russia insisted on dismissing the lawsuit, arguing that the UN court had no jurisdiction to consider it. The court ultimately rejected five of Russia’s six preliminary objections, confirming only that it does not have the authority to decide whether Russia’s invasion violated the UN Genocide Convention.
The court also refused to consider Ukraine’s claims regarding Russia’s recognition of the so-called LPR and DPR, as well as the outbreak of war based on allegations of genocide, stating that they do not apply to the Genocide Convention. Thus, the court continues to consider only Ukraine’s claims related to Russia’s allegations of genocide against the population of Donbas. Consideration of the case on the merits has not yet begun.
