that it has jurisdiction in a case brought by Ukraine that alleges
Russia breached treaties on terrorist financing and racial
discrimination following its annexation of Crimea by arming rebels in
eastern Ukraine and reining in the rights of ethnic Tatars and other
minorities.
The decision by the International Court of Justice means the case, which
opened a new legal front in the strained relationship between Russia
and Ukraine, will go ahead.
It most likely will take many months or years to settle.
The court's president, Abdulqawi Yusuf, said the ruling was limited to
jurisdiction and did not address the merits of Ukraine's complaints in
the case.
Kyiv
filed the case in January 2017, asking the court to order Moscow to
stop financing rebels in eastern Ukraine and to pay compensation for
attacks, including the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which was
shot out of the sky over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014, killing all
298 people on board.
3 Russians, Ukrainian charged
Russia
has always denied involvement in the downing of the passenger jet, but
an international investigation has charged three Russians and a
Ukrainian with murder over their alleged role in the deadly missile
strike.
Ukraine also asked the court to order Russia to stop discriminating against ethnic Tatars on the Crimean Peninsula.
At hearings in June, Russia argued that Ukraine was using the two
treaties as a way of bringing broader arguments about the annexation of
Crimea and the conflict in eastern Ukraine before the world court.
Lawyers for Moscow insisted that the court had no jurisdiction and should throw out the case.
In a preliminary ruling in 2017, the court ordered Russia to stop
limiting "the ability of the Crimean Tatar community to conserve its
representative institutions.''
Rejected request
However,
in the same ruling, judges rejected Ukraine's request for measures
aimed at blocking Russian support for rebels in eastern Ukraine, saying
Kyiv did not provide enough evidence to back up its claim that Moscow
sponsored terrorism by funding and arming the rebels.
The case is going ahead as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is
attempting to end the conflict in the east of his country that has
killed more than 13,000 people and displaced more than a million
people.
Rulings by the court, the United Nations' principal judicial organ, are binding on states.
VOA