Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León

Facultad de Ciencias Políticas y Relaciones Internacionales

International Law
Final Project

Teacher: Tuur Ghys

Student: Danira Hernandez Quiroz
Group: BI6
ID number: 2017408
 Application of international law on the Ukraine-Russia conflict

Introduction
The ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine that has gained relevance in the last
two years because of the negative geopolitical implications it has, as well as the political and
social repercussion that the population in the regions continues to suffer till this day.
This conflict represents multiple issues that can be analyzed through international law, such as,
the violations of territorial integrity with the annexation of Crimea or the accusations of war
crimes and human rights violations committed by Russia.
International law also addresses aspects like the legality of other countries’ intervention on the
matter, as well as, in this case, the sanctions that have been imposed on Russia.
Thus, the importance of this case lies in the fact that, due to the many obstacles faced, the
effectiveness of international law is limited in terms of leading to a resolution, nor does it appear
that this conflict will be solved any time soon, which is clearly dreadful for all the regions
affected.
Background
One of the first recent antecedents of this conflict was the 2014 Donbas war, on the
region that is considered a natural boarder between Russia and Ukraine and which Russia
considers “the heart of the country; the Donbas war started after a coup d'état in Kiev in February
2014, which resulted in a nation-splitting Civil War in Ukraine. The Donbas and Crimea regions
refused to recognize the illegal government of the coup d'état supporters in Kiev, that led to
hostilities between the rebel territories and Kiev.

Then, after that, Ukraine’s process of adhesion to be part of the European Union (2012-
2015) was basically the beginning of the peak of the tensions between Ukraine and Russia.
This process ended up creating dissatisfaction for both Ukraine and Russia. Ukrainian
population had gotten excited and hopeful about the adhesion to the UE and all the benefits it
would bring to the country, while Russia would have considered it as the equivalent of Ukraine
joining the NATO, which would have meant a “threat to security” and would have undermine its
influence in the region.
After the negotiation were concluded and they didn’t result on the adhesion of Ukraine, the
“Euromaidan” started with the population protesting and demanding the government to reopen
negotiations with the EU. These protests spread throughout the country and culminated when the
president escaped and armed groups subsequently took over areas of Crimea and called for a
referendum on independence.
This is how the Russian invasion began, which Putin justified by saying that Donetsk and
Luhansk had asked for troops and argued that these places had been victims of so-called abuse,
discrimination and genocide by Ukraine. Right after this, Russia was expelled from the G8, and
the European union and other countries condemned the act and implemented sanctions.

Annexation of Crimea and the principle of territorial integrity and use of force.
The first aspect of international law that concerns this conflict is the principle of
territorial integrity, which was violated by Russia with Crimea´s annexation. The principle of
territorial integrity claims that every state has sovereignty over their territories, therefore, this
illegal annexation was a violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty, since the referendum imposed by
Russia was done illegally and the decision of the regions of Donetsk y Luhansk of becoming
independent has no recognition from the international community.

Crimea´s annexation was also a violation of the principle of prohibition on the use of
force; article 2 of the section 4 of the UN Charter ¨Bans the threat or use of force against the
territorial integrity of a state, against the political independence of a state, and in any other
manner inconsistent with the purposes of the UN. ¨, however there are also two exceptions, the
first one being the use of force on behalf of the U.N. to maintain peace and security, and the
second one being the use of self-defense to repel an armed attack.
In addition, Chapter 7 of the U.N Charter “Established that force may be used to keep the
peace if the Security Council determines there is an existence of a threat to peace, a breach of
peace, or an act of aggression; and efforts to address the matter using measures short of force
have failed or would be futile.”, this is important to mention, since, initially the U.N. Charter
suggested that all member states would offer their military resources to the Security Council to
serve as a peacekeeping form to stop conflicts if needed.
So, Putin took advantage of the mentioned exceptions by claiming that his troops were a
“peace-keeping force”, which is completely absurd since only the Security Council can establish
UN peacekeeping operations.

Could it be considered as self-defense like Putin also claims that it was? No. First and
according to article 51 of the U.N. Charter, states have the right of individual or collective self
defense if an armed attack occurs against a member of the U.N., so they can for example, rescue
their own citizens if they are trapped in another country, but in this case, it was just an excuse to
outsmart Ukraine’s government and invade Crimea.
Also, Russia claims that the aggressor was Ukraine, however Ukraine never really meant
a threat to Rusia, not even after the Crimea invasion, which, would have been necessary to be
considered as self-defense too, but it wasn’t the case.

Humanitarian International law, war crimes and Human Rights violations

On this armed conflict both Russian and Ukrainian armed forces are supposed to be governed by
international humanitarian treaty law (primarily the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and its
first additional protocol of 1977 (Protocol I), since both of them are parties to these regulations;
however, there have been numerous reports of violations of this principle, including bombings in
residential areas and attacks on civilian infrastructure, in addition, many people have lost their
lives, both civilians and the militaries(Human Rights Watch), and millions of people have been
displaced, in fact, Russian militaries have illegally deported over 15,000. (Julia Crawford, 2023),

There’s no doubt that Rusia has been committing grave violations of international human
rights law and serious violations of international humanitarian law. First, taking as an example
the atrocities documented by Volker Türk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights, that during his visit documented the killing of 441 civilians in hands of the Russian
armed forces.
Some of the victims were killed after security checks in their homes, even after they had
demonstrated that they weren’t a threat, by for example, raising their hands, some other were
attacked in other forms of violation of international humanitarian law, “armored vehicles and
tanks fired on residential buildings and killed civilians in their homes, and others were hit on
roads while moving within or between settlements, or while going to work”.
Volker Türk claimed that there are strong indicators that the executions documented in
the report may constitute the war crime of intentional homicide.

Finally, regarding prisoners of war, Russia denied humanitarian aid organizations the
access to Ukrainian prisoners of war, who were being subjected to mistreatment, torture, mock
executions, executions, beatings and electric shocks, which are all violations of human rights and
the fundamental principles of humanity and the dignity of individuals, as well as a violation of
specific aspects of international human rights law and the Geneva Conventions, which prohibit
torture, inhuman or degrading treatment, and the killing of prisoners of war. (Amnesty
International, 2023)

Conclusion
In conclusion and as mentioned before, the conflict between Rusia and Ukraine is an example of
the limitations of the application of international law in practice, from the illegal annexation of
Crimea and all the stated war crimes and violations to international human rights and
international law, that are basically being overlooked by the international community.
Keeping in mind that there is no hierarchy on international law thus, there is no international law
without the consent of individual nations, so the effects that International Law’s regulations have
over this armed conflict are very limited.
This is why, for instance, although the International Criminal Court also has jurisdiction over
international crimes, it cannot prosecute Russia because it is not a party to the Rome Statute
created by the International Criminal Court.

It is also very unfortunate that there is nothing more that can be done through international
mediation organizations such as the United Nations, since for example if they tried something
else, when the time to run it by the Security Council, Russia would of course say no to anything
that incriminates or prosecutes the crimes and violations they are committing.

What Russia is doing must be stopped and it must also pay the consequences of its actions,
something that the international criminal court could have done was to initiate an investigation to
gather evidence for possible future trials in national or international courts, as did the UN, which
created an independent Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine (Julia Crawford, 2023).
References:

 https://www.un.org/en/about-us/un-charter
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ucrania-cronologia-de-una-guerra-que-parece-no-tener-fin/
 https://www.swissinfo.ch/spa/fracasan-las-negociaciones-de-la-ue-y-ucrania-con-rusia-
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