Russia urges arbitration panel to toss out Black Sea case

Russia has urged an international arbitration panel to throw out a case filed by Ukraine linked to mineral and fishing rights in waters around the Crimean Peninsula.

Preliminary hearings that started Monday in The Hague stem from Russia‘s 2014 annexation of Crimea, a move that Ukraine and most of the world view as illegal.

The head of Russia’s legal team, Dmitry Lobach, has told a panel of arbitrators that they have no jurisdiction in the case, which he argues falls outside the scope of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea cited by Ukraine in its claim.

Details of the Ukrainian claim have not been released, but Kiev has filed a series of lawsuits seeking compensation for damages resulting from the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula.