Russia's spokesman refuses to recognise statements by its officials and President Vladimir Putin from February 2022 that Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began to fight an alleged "genocide" in Donbas.

On 18 September, a hearing in the case of Ukraine vs Russia began in The Hague, in which Ukraine argues that Russia has abused the provisions of the Convention on the Prohibition of Genocide to launch an unjustified military invasion. To this end, the Ukrainian side cited a number of statements made by Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and Russia’s ambassadors to the UN and the EU.

Russian agent Kuzmin denied these intentions of the Russian Federation and assured that Russia started the war "under Article 51 of the UN Charter on self-defence, and this has nothing to do with the Genocide Convention".

"Ukraine says that Russia used the word 'genocide' to describe the actions of the Ukrainian authorities. But statements cannot be a violation," he added.

At the same time, the Russian diplomat continued to insist on falsified data allegedly about Ukraine's struggle against the "people of Donbas" and devoted a significant part of his speech to proving that "Nazism" is deeply rooted in Ukraine.

"The Nazis in Ukraine are descended from the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (Ukrainian nationalist organisation established in 1929 in Vienna – ed.), the Nazi collaborator," said the Russian representative in The Hague, adding that, in Russia's view, there are "three fathers of Ukrainian Nazism" – Stepan Bandera, Roman Shukhevych and Andrii Melnyk.

Interestingly, another Ukrainian politician who was publicly accused by a Russian diplomat of supporting Nazism was current President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. "Zelenskyy named the Armed Forces brigade "Edelweiss" after the Nazi "Edelweiss"," he explained.

Russia is demanding that the court dismiss the Ukrainian complaint as inadmissible.

Ukraine will present its legal position on 19 September. European Pravda will follow the proceedings. For more information about Ukraine's claims and the essence of the charges, see the blog "Putin's words about genocide will allow Russia to be punished".