Ukraine has been preparing lawsuit strategy against Russia for invasion since autumn 2021

The Ukrainian side has been developing a strategy for a lawsuit against Russia for the full-scale invasion even before it took place.

Source: Harold Coh, legal adviser to Ukraine and a professor at Yale University who has been helping the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to pursue cases against Russia in international courts for more than eight years

Quote: "We were in a situation where we were working on the prior case. They put together a team that argued the terrorism financing and race discrimination case. And in the fall of 2021, they said: ‘You know, there is a chance that Putin will invade, what do we do?’ And we said: ‘You know, maybe we should develop a theory for that possibility.’ And we did."

Details: The professor said that after the invasion began, the question arose as to what to do next.

Quote: "And they contacted us when they were in the Carpathian mountains, they had driven 26 hours and they wanted to go back into the court. I think, President Zelenskyy wanted to give some hope to the people. And so we filed, and we were able to get into the International Court of Justice on 9 March."

More details: Coh stated that the invasion took place on 24 February, and the decision was received on 16 March, which is less than a month after the invasion began.

Quote: "On this legal war, Ukraine can be on the offensive."

Background: Earlier, Oksana Zolotariova, Director of the International Law Department and Ukraine’s representative at the International Court of Justice in cases against Russia, said in an interview with European Pravda that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was preparing a lawsuit to the International Court of Justice on false accusations by Russia of genocide in Donbas right from the evacuation train.  

Ukraine expects to receive an interim decision from the International Court of Justice on Russia's false accusations of genocide by the end of this year, and the substantive hearing of the case may begin in 2025.

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