THE HAGUE, Netherlands (CN) — Russia had the last word before the top court of the United Nations on Wednesday, insisting that Ukraine's case against it is built on fabricated evidence and conspiracy theories.
In the case at the International Court of Justice, Kyiv accuses Moscow of having illegally financed separatist groups in eastern Ukraine and discriminated against non-Russians in the annexed Crimea region.
Offering his final statement Wednesday on Russia's bid to dismiss, a lawyer for Russia, Michael Swainston, began by announcing that he had been on the receiving end of death threats originating from Langley, Virginia — where CIA headquarters are located.
Judge Joan Donoghue quickly interrupted Swainston, however, reminding the attorney that discussions of the death threats were to be dealt with in written submissions from both sides. Final statements in proceedings before the court are limited to legal issues addressed in earlier oral arguments.
Swainston moved on to repeat a number of arguments he had made last week, denying that Russia had provided the surface-to-air missile that was used to down Flight MH17, a passenger airline that was shot out of the sky over Eastern Ukraine in 2014. “This is fiction. No Buk-TELAR came from Russia,” the British lawyer told the judges, referring to the Soviet Union-developed missile system.
Last year, The Hague District Court convicted three men of downing the Boeing 777 for transporting a Buk-TELAR into Ukraine from a Russian military unit across the border and then returning it to Russian territory. Russian failed to challenge the judgment earlier this year, with the European Court of Human Rights calling its arguments “unpersuasive and is not supported by any plausible evidence.”
Ukraine presented its closing statements on Monday, mostly sticking to technical arguments that Moscow violated the ICSFT, short for the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, and CERD, short for the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
"The unfortunate reality is that high-level Russia officials appear to be involved in terrorism financing," attorney Marney Cheek argued for Ukraine.
Kyiv's opening statement last week focused on allegations that Moscow illegally financed separatist groups in eastern Ukraine and discriminated against non-Russians in the annexed Crimea region, calling the country a “terrorist state.”
Ukraine has also accused Russia of destroying a dam that is part of a major hydroelectric power station in southern Ukraine. "I stand here before the World Court seeking protections of the basic human rights of the Ukrainian people," Ukrainian diplomat Oksana Zolotaryova said in her final words in the Great Hall of Justice.
Kyiv first filed the complaint in 2017, three years after Russia took over a number of border regions. After a week of hearings, judges ruled in 2019 that the court had jurisdiction to take the dispute.
The pair have another case pending before the court based on the ongoing war. Last week, the ICJ announced it would accept interventions in the case from a record-breaking 32 countries, supporting Ukrainian allegations that Russia is violating the Genocide Convention by using fictitious claims of genocide as a pretext for its invasion.
A ruling in the present case is expected sometime next year.
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