The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, welcomed the order of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to Russia to immediately suspend its military operations in Ukraine, on in the evening of 16 Wednesday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, “must heed this clear decision from the international community. This unjustified war must stop”, she said on Twitter.
On Thursday 17 March, EEAS spokesman Peter Stano recalled that the ICJ order had binding effect under international law.
Furthermore, Mr Stano recalled that the Court had stated that it did not have solid evidence to support the Russian Federation’s allegations that genocide had been committed on Ukrainian territory. He said that possible genocide was “the absurd argument used by Putin to justify the invasion”. “Russia has no right under the Genocide Convention and the UN Charter to unilaterally use force on the territory of another State for the purpose of preventing genocide”, he also explained.
According to him, “Putin has already lost morally, now he also loses legally and his isolation at the international level is increasing”.
Unsurprisingly, the Kremlin spokesman said that his country “cannot take this decision into account”. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)