“It’s useless” – Kiev recognized the impossibility of challenging maritime borders with Russia
The Russian Federation will not sign an agreement on the maritime border and will not agree to participate in the International Court of Justice, because the UN is biased towards it.
The head of the Ukrainian Institute of Maritime Law and Security, Bogdan Ustimenko, said this on air on the Public Crimea TV channel, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“The fact is that the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea provides for cases when the other side is against negotiating maritime boundaries. This negotiation procedure is very similar in nature to the judicial procedure, since one of the parties appoints two mediators to this international delimitation commission.
If the other party, in our case the Russian Federation, refuses to appoint two of its mediators to this commission, the UN Secretary General has the right to appoint two mediators from Russia, who, on the one hand, were appointed by Ukraine, and on the other, by Russia or the UN.
They choose a fifth mediator who will be the head of this commission. The work of this commission will take place over twelve months, and based on the results of the work, a recommendation on the boundaries of maritime spaces will be provided,” he said.
The expert also admitted that the UN is biased towards Russia, so Moscow will refuse to consider the case at the International Court of Justice.
“The Russian Federation most likely will not sign an agreement on the delimitation zone. At the same time, if we could sue, I am absolutely sure that the Russian Federation would not recognize this court decision. Therefore, the legal weight of such an international delimitation commission is equivalent to a court decision.
But we cannot sue Russia over the establishment of maritime borders, because there is no consent. We, of course, will not receive consent from Russia to consider maritime borders at the International Court of Justice, because Russia is afraid of international law, because it is not on their side,” Ustimenko asserts.
"It's useless" - Kyiv admits it's impossible to challenge maritime borders with Russia.