Comment on Ukraine brands Russia ‘terrorist state’ to open hearings in case against Russia at top UN court

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A top Ukrainian diplomat called Russia a “terrorist state” Tuesday as he opened his country’s case against Moscow at the United Nations’ highest court, and lawyers argued that Russia bankrolled a “campaign of intimidation and terror” by rebels in eastern Ukraine in 2014. Anton Korynevych was addressing judges at the International Court of Justice in a case brought by Kyiv against Russia linked to Moscow’s 2014 annexation of the Crimean Peninsula and the arming of rebels in eastern Ukraine in the years before Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. Ukraine wants the world court to order Moscow to pay reparations for attacks in the regions, including for the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 that was shot down by Russia-backed rebels on July 17, 2014, killing all 298 passengers and crew. “When it could have instructed its officials not to fund groups committing violence against, Russia did nothing,” Harold Koh, a lawyer for Ukraine, told judges.