One more decision from the ICJ...
...ignored by the mainstream media, as usual.
Friday 2nd February 2024 the International Court of Justice (ICJ) took another decision that, for obvious reasons, was not very publicized in the MSM, apart from a few agencies, such as Reuters, AP, DW, Euronews, VOA and Al Jazeera.
In short, soon after Russia started its Special Military Operation (SMO) in February 2022, Ukraine filed a case at the ICJ, saying that Moscow violated the Genocide Convention using the pretext of stopping an alleged genocide of Russians and Russian speakers in Donbass to invade its territory… but yesterday the case backfired!
I will let Maria Zakharova, spokesperson of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, explain why the case backfired spectacularly - what follows is the English translation of the…
On 2 February in The Hague, the UN International Court of Justice ruled in the case "Ukraine v. Russia: Interpretation and Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide". So far, the judgement is limited to the procedural issue of whether the Court has jurisdiction. However, already at this preliminary stage Ukraine's "concocted" case fell apart: all Ukrainian claims that Russia had allegedly violated the Convention by "abusing" it to justify the initiation of the NWO were completely rejected by the Court.
The Court heeded Russia's preliminary objections and agreed that the accusations made by Kyiv were not relevant to the Convention. After all, this is not about Russia committing genocide or failing to fulfil its obligations to prevent genocide: on the contrary, Kyiv argues that Russia allegedly implemented the Convention too "zealously" by launching an IED to protect Donbas from genocide without sufficient evidence. However, as is well known, the SMO is based on the right to self-defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter, as notified to the UN Security Council. It was the military escalation by the AFU, which intensified its armed attacks on the DNR and LNR, that prompted Moscow's response.
The unprecedented intervention of the "collective West" did not help Kyiv either. As many as 47 countries (mainly NATO and EU members) have declared their intention to support Ukraine by joining the process; of these, 33 have submitted the relevant applications at the jurisdictional stage. We blocked the American accession: the United States itself does not recognise the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice under the Convention. As a result, thirty-two legal teams (Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, New Zealand, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, UK) took turns at the court hearings in The Hague in September 2023, turning them into a real buffoonery. It is noteworthy that earlier the same NATO countries, accused by Serbia of violating the Genocide Convention for bombing Yugoslavia, argued to the same Court that the Convention does not regulate the use of force, and the military campaign in "defence" of Kosovo Albanians was legitimate. At that time, the International Court of Justice listened to those assertions and refused to consider all Serbian claims. We, of course, reminded the Court of those precedents. Russia has long warned the West that Kosovo would come back on them. This has happened once again.
As a result, only one question remained before the Court - whether Ukraine had committed genocide in Donbas. In other words, Kyiv has put itself in the dock in the context of its own claims. We can only applaud Kyiv's "skilful people" and their Western patrons: they have "shot themselves in the foot".
All emphasis mine.