Ukraine on Monday (7/3) will ask the UN's top court for assistance in issuing an emergency decision requiring Russia to stop its invasion. Ukraine also criticized Russia for feeling like it was preventing genocide.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia's military action in Ukraine was necessary to protect people who had been subjected to intimidation and genocide.
The people Putin is referring to are Russian-speaking Ukrainians, i.e. those living in eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine feels these reasons are baseless and claims of attempted genocide are completely untrue. Ukraine urges the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to take immediate action against Russia as there is no legal justification for an invasion.
Ukraine's presentation at the ICJ will take place on Monday, while the Russian side will be given time to respond on Tuesday (8/3).
The case that Ukraine will bring to the ICJ refers to the interpretation of the 1948 treaty on the prevention of genocide. Both Ukraine and Russia have signed the agreement.
Putin's reasons for wanting to prevent the genocide have long been criticized by many. Last week, the executive board of the International Association of Genocidal Scholars said that Putin had misused the term genocide.
"There is absolutely no evidence that a genocide took place in Ukraine," the association's president, Melanie O'Brien, told Reuters.
Once the report is received, the ICJ can come up with interim measures in a matter of days or weeks to prevent the situation from deteriorating. After that, the ICJ will look at the feasibility of a case, or whether it has jurisdiction over the case.
Reflecting on the 2014 annexation of Crimea, the ICJ ordered both sides not to exacerbate the dispute.
