THE HAGUE: Ukraine’s energy giant Naftogaz said on Thursday that a Hague-based tribunal had ordered Russia to pay the firm $5 billion for the illegal seizure of its assets in Crimea.
Naftogaz chief executive Oleksiy Chernyshov said the firm had “won a key victory on the energy front” over losses he said were caused by Russia’s 2014 annexation of the peninsula.
“Despite Russia’s attempts to obstruct justice, the arbitration tribunal ordered Russia to compensate Naftogaz for losses of $5 billion,” Chernyshov said.
“This relates to the seizure of our assets in Crimea by Russia in 2014. Russia must now comply with this decision in accordance with its obligations under international law.”
The Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration, which administers the tribunal, told AFP it “has been provided no information for public dissemination beyond that made available” on its website.
The site provides a history of the case but no record of a judgment.
Naftogaz said it filed the case in 2016 and the tribunal delivered the verdict on Wednesday.
The award was made after hearings to determine the amount of compensation, which ended in March 2022 after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, it said.
“The court rejected Russian claims that Naftogaz is not entitled to any compensation for the expropriation of its assets,” the energy firm added.
Kyiv and Ukrainian companies have increasingly turned to international courts to bring cases against Russia.
The International Criminal Court, also based in The Hague, issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes in March.
Ukraine’s Naftogaz says wins $5 bn lawsuit against Russia
https://arab.news/94jhr
Ukraine’s Naftogaz says wins $5 bn lawsuit against Russia
- "Despite Russia's attempts to obstruct justice, the arbitration tribunal ordered Russia to compensate Naftogaz for losses of $5 billion," Chernyshov said
- Naftogaz said it filed the case in 2016 and the tribunal delivered the verdict on Wednesday
UN chief calls on Israel to reverse NGOs ban in Gaza
- In November, authorities in Gaza said more than 70,000 people had been killed there since the war broke out
- Israel on Thursday suspended 37 foreign humanitarian organizations from accessing the Gaza Strip after they had refused to share lists of their Palestinian employees with government officials
UNITED NATIONS, United States: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called on Friday for Israel to end a ban on humanitarian agencies that provided aid in Gaza, saying he was “deeply concerned” at the development.
Guterres “calls for this measure to be reversed, stressing that international non-governmental organizations are indispensable to life-saving humanitarian work and that the suspension risks undermining the fragile progress made during the ceasefire,” his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.
“This recent action will further exacerbate the humanitarian crisis facing Palestinians,” he added.
Israel on Thursday suspended 37 foreign humanitarian organizations from accessing the Gaza Strip after they had refused to share lists of their Palestinian employees with government officials.
The ban includes Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which has 1,200 staff members in the Palestinian territories — the majority of whom are in Gaza.
NGOs included in the ban have been ordered to cease their operations by March 1.
Several NGOS have said the requirements contravene international humanitarian law or endanger their independence.
Israel says the new regulation aims to prevent bodies it accuses of supporting terrorism from operating in the Palestinian territories.
On Thursday, 18 Israel-based left-wing NGOs denounced the decision to ban their international peers, saying “the new registration framework violates core humanitarian principles of independence and neutrality.”
A fragile ceasefire has been in place since October, following a deadly war waged by Israel in response to Hamas’s unprecedented October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
In November, authorities in Gaza said more than 70,000 people had been killed there since the war broke out.
Nearly 80 percent of buildings in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged by the war, according to UN data, leaving infrastructure decimated.
About 1.5 million of Gaza’s more than two million residents have lost their homes, said Amjad Al-Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGO Network in Gaza.
