Ukraine to open hearings in case against Russia at top UN court

By MIKE CORDER
Associated Press

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Hearings are opening at the United Nations’ highest court in a case brought by Ukraine against Russia linked to Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and arming of rebels in eastern Ukraine in the years before Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. Kyiv wants the International Court of Justice 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. Four days of hearings in the court’s ornate, wood-paneled Great Hall of Justice are opening Tuesday against a backdrop of Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II raging on in Ukraine.