The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the United Nations’ top court, will rule on Russia’s preliminary objections to Ukraine’s lawsuit over false genocide allegations on Feb. 2, the court announced Jan. 29.

Ukraine brought a case before the ICJ in February 2022, arguing that Russia violated international law when it used false claims about acts of genocide against Russian speakers in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts to justify its full-scale invasion.

Kyiv “emphatically denies” that any acts of genocide have taken place, and aims “to establish that Russia has no lawful basis to take action in and against Ukraine for the purpose of preventing and punishing any purported genocide.”

Russia submitted objections to Ukraine’s suit during hearings in September, arguing that the Hague-based court does not have the jurisdicion to hear the case.

The ICJ will rule on those objections on Feb. 2. If the court agrees that the suit can advance, it may take months before hearings resume on the merits of the case itself.

Ukraine has argued that Russia’s false allegations of genocide violate the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Over 30 countries have joined Ukraine’s lawsuit against Russia, the largest number to join another nation’s suit in the court’s history.

Since the outbreak of Russia’s full-scale war, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly and the parliaments of eight countries, including Ukraine, have recognized acts committed by Russian invading forces as genocide.

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