REUTERS

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has instructed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to file a lawsuit with the International Court of Justice in The Hague regarding Russia's violation of the UN Convention on Combating the Financing of Terrorism and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the president's press-service told a UNIAN correspondent.

"For the past three years, the Russian Federation has been violating international law, for these three years it has been implementing the illegal annexation of Crimea, the illegal occupation of the east of our country in the territory of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and carrying out a policy of extermination and discrimination in Crimea," Poroshenko said during a meeting with the Ukrainian president's envoy to the Crimean Tatar people and leader of the Crimean Tatar people, MP Mustafa Dzhemilev, Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister for European Integration Olena Zerkal, and deputy heads of Presidential Administration of Ukraine Kostyantyn Yeliseyev and Oleksiy Filatov.

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Read alsoThe Hague court accepts evidence of Russia's war crimesHe said that over the three years, the Russian fighters committed numerous terrorist attacks, resulting in hundreds of thousands of innocent victims being forced to leave their homes.

The President reminded that some 1.7 million Ukrainians were temporarily displaced. "Those who remained in Crimea and Donbas are being tortured and persecuted. The activities of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people are banned and many other crimes are being committed that cannot be left unpunished," Poroshenko said.

He also recalled the numerous crimes that were committed by terrorists against civilians in Mariupol, Volnovakha, and Kramatorsk, as well as the downing of MH17 aircraft by militants.

Read also"It needs to be disguised and taken away": PGO releases records of intercepted calls between two culprits in MH17 caseThe Head of State expressed confidence that since the beginning of the Russian aggression, Ukraine has acted exclusively within the framework of international law. He noted that this work was carried out on his behalf and as of today, the process of prolonged pre-trial preparations has been completed and a lawsuit has been prepared to be submitted to the ICC.

The lawsuit is drawn up under the Convention on prevention of terrorism financing. "It was a long and laborious work. There have been many meetings and a large number of notes were submitted," the President said. In general, five meetings were held and 45 notes were sent as part of this lawsuit.

According to Poroshenko, the second position in the suit regards the application of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, where three meetings were held and more than 20 notes were submitted.

Read alsoUkraine reminds UN Security Council that Kyiv for three years in a row has been opposing Russian "hybrid war""As of today, the whole range of efforts in a pre-trial process has been completed. Ukraine is fully ready to submit the necessary documents to the International Court of Justice in The Hague in order to bring the Russian Federation to justice under these two conventions," the President said and emphasized that the preparation of the Ukrainian side was very thorough.