Ukraine brought the case to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the highest U.N. court for disputes between states, days after Russia launched a full scale war on its smaller neighbour on Feb. 24 last year.
Kyiv argues that Russia is abusing the 1948 U.N. Genocide Convention, adopted in the aftermath of World War Two, by saying the invasion was justified to stop an alleged genocide in eastern Ukraine.
Russia asked the court on Monday to throw out the case, claiming Kyiv's legal arguments were "hopelessly flawed" and that Moscow had not actually invoked the genocide treaty when it used the term genocide.
Some 32 states will address the court, all in support of Ukraine, which wants the court to go on and hear the case on merit and find that Russia must pay reparations.
Ukraine says there was no risk of genocide in eastern Ukraine, where it had been fighting Russian-backed forces since 2014.
Persons:
Anton Korynevych, Oksana Zolotaryova, Alexander Vasilievich Shulgin, Gennady Kuzmin, Wiebke Ruckert, Stephanie van den Berg, Anthony Deutsch, Alexandra Hudson
Organizations:
Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Law, Russia's, HAGUE, Wednesday, International Court of Justice, Convention, Kyiv, Alexandra Hudson Our, Thomson
Locations:
Russian, Netherlands, Australia, Canada, Russia, Ukraine, Moscow