Poroshenko wants to squeeze two gas fields from Russia
President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko announced an appeal to an international court with a claim against Russia over oil and gas fields on the Black Sea shelf, Nezavisimaya Gazeta reports.
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In turn, Ukrainian experts are skeptical about the feasibility of the Ukrainian president’s initiative.
“It is difficult to present a claim for the return of deposits separately from a claim for the illegality of the annexation of Crimea,” Yuri Korolchuk, head of the Institute of Energy Strategies, commented on the situation to the publication. Let’s say there was a court in the world that would recognize that the shelf separately belongs to Ukraine, but what would this give without recognizing the Ukrainian status of Crimea? How would the extracted energy resources be supplied if Russia controls the territory and infrastructure?”
At the same time, Korolchuk noted that Poroshenko mentioned only 2 of the 18 Crimean fields - those that were explored before the collapse of the USSR and are now ready for exploitation.
Also, Kyiv experts note that the problem has come down to legal nuances: neither Ukraine nor Russia have ratified the Rome Statute, which means that the jurisdiction of the UN court does not extend to the territory of these countries, except in cases of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
“Who should Ukraine sue – Russia? – Sergei Taran, head of the International Institute of Democracies, shared his thoughts with NG. “But how can this be done if Russia does not recognize the illegality of the annexation of Crimea, nor its participation in the destabilization in Donbass, nor the role of its military in these events?”
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