THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Ukraine on Monday accused Russia of in search of to illegally seize management of the strategically necessary Sea of Azov and Kerch Strait, as hearings opened in a high-stakes arbitration case between Kyiv and Moscow.
The hearings on the Everlasting Courtroom of Arbitration are the most recent in a string of worldwide authorized instances involving Russia and Ukraine linked to Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and its 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, at the same time as combating continues to rage on battlefields in Ukraine.
“Russia needs to take the Sea of Azov and Kerch Strait for itself, and so it has constructed an incredible gate on the entrance to maintain worldwide delivery out whereas permitting small Russian river vessels in,” Ukrainian consultant Anton Korynevych informed a panel of arbitrators.
The gate he referred to is a bridge constructed by Russia throughout the Kerch Strait after the annexation of Crimea. The $3.5-billion, 19-kilometer (12-mile) bridge linking the Black and Azov seas carries highway and rail site visitors on separate sections and is significant to sustaining Russia’s army operations in southern Ukraine.
“The bridge is illegal and it should come down,” Korynevych informed the arbitration panel.
Ukraine filed the case in 2016, two years after Russia annexed Crimea. It accuses Moscow of subsequently breaching a United Nations maritime treaty by constructing the bridge, barring Ukrainian fishermen from waters they historically fished, damaging the atmosphere and plundering underwater archeological websites.
Kyiv is in search of unspecified compensation.
Russia insists the arbitration court docket doesn’t have jurisdiction. It says that if its 5 judges determine they do have jurisdiction, the court docket ought to dismiss Ukraine’s claims.
“Ukraine’s accusations on this case are, in fact, fully groundless and hopeless,” Russian Agent Gennady Kuzmin informed the panel.
He argued that the Sea of Azov and Kerch Strait represent “inner waters” that aren’t lined by the United Nations Conference on the Legislation of the Sea, the treaty Ukraine alleges Russia is breaching.
After Monday’s two opening statements, the panel hearings will proceed for days behind closed doorways. A ultimate ruling might take years.
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