THE HAGUE, February 28. /TASS/. Ukraine has filed an application with the International Court of Justice, accusing Russia of violating the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the court said in a press release.

"On February 26, 2022, Ukraine filed an application instituting proceedings against the Russian Federation before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, concerning ‘a dispute <...> relating to the interpretation, application and fulfilment of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide’," the document reads.

"Ukraine ‘emphatically denies’ that such genocide has occurred and states that it submitted the application ‘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’," the court said.

Besides, Kiev accused Russia "of ‘planning acts of genocide in Ukraine’ and contends that Russia "is intentionally killing and inflicting serious injury on members of the Ukrainian nationality the actus reus of genocide under Article II of the [Genocide] Convention’," the press release added.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky earlier said that Kiev had filed an application against Russia with the International Court of Justice, demanding that hearings take place next week.

On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation based on a request from the heads of the Donbass republics. The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans to occupy Ukrainian territories. Russia’s Defense Ministry reported later that the Russian Armed Forces were not delivering strikes against Ukrainian cities. The ministry emphasized that the Ukrainian military infrastructure was being destroyed by precision weapons and there was no threat to civilians.