New Delhi: The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the UN’s highest office of justice at the Hague, on Friday said it would take up a case by Kyiv, asking it to rule that Ukraine did not commit any act of genocide in the eastern part of the country which Russia claimed as a basis for going to war with the country.
Ukraine brought the case to the ICJ shortly after Vladimir Putin-led Russia launched a full-scale military offensive on the country.
The military conflict, which has continued for over a year now, has claimed thousands of lives on both sides, according to reports.
According to a Reuters report, the judges at the ICJ on Friday ruled that it had the jurisdiction to hear a ‘small part’ of the case as was brought before the court by Kyiv.
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However, in a blow to Ukraine, which has been approaching every available forum to rally global support amid the conflict with Russia, the judges at the ‘World Court’ turned down a request by Kyiv to pass its verdict on whether Moscow contravened the 1948 Genocide Covention by ‘invading’ the country.
Reuters reported that the judges, while finding that it has jurisdiction to hear a part of the case, said they will later deliver their judgement on whether Moscow violated the Genocide Convention by Donetsk and Luhansk areas of eastern Ukraine.
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“It is important that the court will decide on the issue that Ukraine is not responsible for some mythical genocide which the Russian Federation falsely alleged that Ukraine has committed,” the Ukrainian representative at the ICJ, Anton Korynevych, was quoted as saying in the Reuters report.