Why is victory in the “genocidal” case against Russia extremely important for Ukraine?

Yale professor Harold Hongju Koh is a former legal advisor of the US Department of State. For the last eight years, he has been helping Ukraine in its legal battle with Russia. The latest is the Genocide case Ukraine vs Russia at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

We met in The Hague during the hearings in the case "Ukraine vs. Russia" under the Genocide Convention. Ukraine filed this lawsuit in February 2022 at a time when Kyiv did not yet have evidence that Putin was genuinely planning a genocide against Ukrainians, so Ukraine's lawsuit was creative and did not contain genocide allegations.

Since then, events like Bucha, Mariupol, and others have occurred. Is this enough to accuse Russia of the most serious crime on Earth? Read the full interview of Harold Koh by Sergiy Sydorenko, European Pravda's editor - Putin Has a Very Slim Possibility to Stay On for the Long Term. Or watch the original interview in English.

During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, many war crimes were committed. However, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has so far only accused Vladimir Putin of child abduction. There have been no genocide allegations.

Koh's statements in brief: There are many, many war crimes being committed. It's interesting that the International Criminal Court prosecutor to this point has only charged Putin with stealing children.

As far as we know, he has not yet charged him with genocide. One of the problems is that it's hard to gather this kind of evidence in a war zone. There is now a number of groups involved in gathering the evidence.

The purpose of this case was to call out Russia's false use of the Genocide Convention. They use the claim as the justification to invade. If it turns out the claim is false, then their right to invade is also illegal.

So a ruling by the highest UN court is very important to say that what Russia is doing is illegal. It's the beginning of a dynamic process. And where that process will end, we don't know.

Overall, Ukrainians are winning the legal battle, but despite that, victory in this specific case cannot be guaranteed. The United States never ratified the Permanent Court of International Justice, which was set up by the League of Nations. One reason for this is that as a country with global interests, the United States is not just going to be the plaintiff or the prosecutor: they may also be the defendant, so they see this from both sides.

One possibility is he could be overthrown. Yuri Andropov, also a former KGB chief, was quietly removed. He could flee.

KGB agents tend to have exit strategies, so for all we know, he's set up a dacha somewhere in the Middle East and could take money. A third possibility is he could negotiate. But I don't think he'll be able to negotiate for his own freedom from criminal responsibility.

So he has very few options at the moment.

If you notice an error, select the required text and press Ctrl + Enter to report it to the editors.