Ukraine submits application against Russia to ICJ; Prez Zelensky requests urgent decision ordering Russia to cease military activity

Amid the ongoing tensions in Ukraine due to Russia invasion, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday said that Ukraine has has submitted its application against Russia to the International Court of Justice.

He said that Russia must be held accountable for manipulating notion of genocide to justify aggression.

"We request urgent decision ordering Russia to cease military activity now and expect trials to start next week," the President appealed to ICJ.

The submission comes on a day when street fighting broke out in Ukraine's second-largest city and Russian troops squeezed strategic ports in the country's south Sunday, advances that appeared to make a new phase of Russia's invasion following a wave of attacks on airfields and fuel facilities elsewhere in the country.

Following its gains on the ground, Russia sent a delegation to Belarus for peace talks with Ukraine, according to the Kremlin. Ukraine's president suggested other locations, saying his country was unwilling to meet in Belarus because it served as a staging ground for the invasion.

Until Sunday, Russia's troops had remained on the outskirts of Kharkiv, a city of 1.4 million about 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) south of the border with Russia, while other forces rolled past to press the offensive deeper into Ukraine and Ukrainian fighters put up determined resistance.

Today, the Ukraine's president also said that Russia should be thrown out of the United Nations Security Council following its invasion of his country.

Zelenskyy said in a video message Sunday that the Russian invasion of Ukraine amounts to an act of genocide, saying that "Russia has taken the path of evil and the world should come to depriving it of its U.N. Security Council seat." Russia is one of the five permanent members of the Security Council, giving it veto power over resolutions.

(with agency inputs)

Published on: Sunday, February 27, 2022, 04:54 PM IST