Russia-Ukraine live updates: Russia cease-fire claim in doubt as Ukraine contests invasion at top U.N. court

Ukraine will ask the United Nations’ highest court on Monday to intervene to halt Russia’s invasion, arguing it relies on false claims of genocide in two separatist regions in eastern Ukraine where Moscow-backed rebels have battled Kyiv for years.

The International Court of Justice, also known as the World Court, is based in The Hague and adjudicates legal disputes between states. Its rulings are legally binding, although countries don’t always adhere to them, and it has no real way of enforcing them. (The International Criminal Court, also based in The Hague, is responsible for holding individuals accountable for war crimes — such as those leveled by Ukraine against Russia; teams have been dispatched to bomb sites in pursuit of evidence for a potential case.)

What are war crimes — and could Russia be committing them in Ukraine?

Russian President Vladimir Putin declared he was launching a military operation on Feb. 24 for the “demilitarization and denazification” of eastern Ukraine — claiming it was necessary “to protect people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide.”

Ukraine emphatically denies the genocide claims and is calling on the International Court of Justice to order Moscow to “immediately suspend the military operations.”

Legal experts say Ukraine’s goal is for Russia to halt its military invasion, not simply for Russia to cease claiming, as a false pretext for the invasion, that Ukraine has committed genocide. The first step in its court case will be to establish that the situation qualifies as a “dispute” under the Genocide Convention.

The International Association of Genocide Scholars has accused Putin of “misappropriating and misusing the term ‘genocide’ to justify invading a sovereign state.” In doing so, he “serves to diminish the experience of genuine victims and survivors of genocide,” the association’s board said in a recent statement.

“There is no evidence of genocide being committed by Ukraine against Russian-speaking citizens, and such claims have been exposed by independent observers as baseless and even fabricated,” the scholars said.

New Zealand, long heralded as a billionaire’s hideaway at the far end of the world, is introducing a bespoke sanctions bill that, according to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, could prevent Russian super yachts, ships and aircraft from entering its waters or airspace.

Although they won’t deliver the same scale of economic consequences to Russia as sanctions enacted by big global powers, including the United States, New Zealand’s move is symbolic in that it is a first of its kind for the nation, which usually follows the lead of the United Nations when applying sanctions against belligerent powers.

“A bill of this nature has never been brought before our Parliament, but with Russia vetoing UN sanctions we must act ourselves to support Ukraine and our partners in opposition to this invasion,” Ardern said in a statement Monday, referring to Moscow’s veto power as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council. “Despite international condemnation and the resilience and resistance of the Ukrainian people, Russia’s assault continues, and so must our pressure.”

The bill will target those of economic or strategic relevance to Russia, including oligarchs, and a public register will list every individual, entity, asset or service that is sanctioned.

The sanctions will freeze assets located in New Zealand. They will also prevent those who are sanctioned from moving assets to New Zealand or using the country’s financial system as “a back door” to get around sanctions elsewhere, the government said.

“New Zealand continues to call on Russia to do what is right and immediately cease military operations in Ukraine and permanently withdraw to avoid a catastrophic loss of innocent life,” Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta said.

The government also published a list of dozens of Russian officials and others associated with the invasion who are banned from entering New Zealand, including President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Ardern’s center-left Labour Party has a majority in Parliament, and the bill is set to pass this week.

About a million consumers in southeastern Ukraine will be cut off from natural gas after Russian shelling damaged a main pipeline, according to the country’s Gas Transmission System Operator.

The blow to a key source of heating and cooking fuel came as Ukrainians in besieged Mariupol were already cut off from water, heat and electricity. Natural gas accounts for almost a third of Ukraine’s energy consumption, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The operator said Sunday that the pipeline was closed after dispatchers “recorded a sharp jump in pressure,” indicating damage. A huge swath of people in southeastern Ukraine — in the regions of Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia — “will be left without a gas supply,” it said in a statement.

“Gas companies are looking for technical solutions to minimize losses and return gas supply to consumers,” the statement said. “It is impossible to start eliminating the accident due to the high intensity of hostilities.”

It also said “gas distribution stations” in the regions of Kharkiv, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv, Luhansk, Mykolaiv and Kherson are shut down.

Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Sunday that the country will open a field hospital in Ukraine, as well as refugee centers at border crossings.

The field hospital will be established in coming days, with assistance from Israel’s Health Ministry; Sheba Medical Center, Israel’s largest hospital; and the Clalit Health Fund, an Israeli health-care provider, a ministry spokesperson said in a statement.

Israel will also send “six giant generators to the Lviv Hospital that will allow its continuous operation during power outages,” as well as other aid including medicine and medical equipment.

The refugee centers will be placed at border crossings, “where Israeli representatives are operating,” and will provide winter coats and other aid to Ukrainians fleeing in the cold. The ministry noted that the centers will assist “Jews and non-Jews alike.”

The ministry also said it had launched an effort called “Matat” — a name meaning gift — to streamline donations, volunteer work and other aid from Israeli civilians.

A consortium of Jewish groups aiding evacuations at six border crossings has brought at least 3,000 Jewish Ukrainians into neighboring Moldova and another estimated 3,000 into Poland, Hungary and Romania, according to Michael Geller, a spokesman for the New York-based American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, one of the relief organizations involved in the effort.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Sunday that it is “our moral obligation to make every effort” to help the people of Ukraine — the only country other than Israel to have a Jewish leader.

A growing number of U.S. officials are calling for a ban on Russian oil and gas imports to pressure that country’s economy despite concerns that such a move could raise already high gas prices for American consumers.

Officials including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) called Sunday for a U.S. ban as part of the ongoing bid to hinder the Russian economy over its invasion of Ukraine.

Blinken told CNN host Jake Tapper that the United States is talking to allies about “the prospect of banning the import of Russian oil, while making sure that there’s still an appropriate supply of oil on world markets.” He noted in Sunday morning’s “State of the Union” interview that the discussion was taking place “as we speak.”

Bethenny Frankel, a philanthropist who gained fame through “The Real Housewives of New York” reality television show, said she has raised about $25 million to assist those affected by the crisis in Ukraine.

Frankel said that through her disaster relief initiative, “BStrong,” in collaboration with the nonprofit Global Empowerment Mission, more than $10 million had been donated to relocate refugees in Poland and other European Union countries. Her organization also has committed to providing $15 million in other aid, including medical supplies and hygiene kits, she said.

She said her effort focused, in part, on refugees fleeing Ukraine who are not Ukrainian citizens, with needs that were “much more complicated due to visa situations and language barriers.”

Some African and South Asian immigrants fleeing Ukraine have faced problems when trying to exit the country, according to the U.N. refugee agency and other authorities.

Frankel, who founded the Skinnygirl drink brand, has also organized aid and donations for earthquake victims in Haiti, those affected by the Texas blackout last winter and the Surfside condo collapse in Florida.

SYDNEY — Australia’s prime minister called the invasion of Ukraine a “major wake-up call” for liberal democracies as he urged them to stand together in the face of “autocratic regimes,” such as Russia and China.

“A new arc of autocracy is instinctively aligning to challenge and reset the world order in their own image,” Scott Morrison said Monday in a video address from his Sydney residence, where he is isolating after testing positive for the coronavirus last week. He repeatedly drew parallels between Russian and Chinese aggression, saying Vladimir Putin’s claims to parts of Ukraine had “a chilling reverberation with similar lectures that I’ve been on the receiving end of about situations in the Indo-Pacific and what people claim to be theirs.”

The war in Ukraine had not impacted the “tense” situation in the Taiwan Strait, Morrison said, but Australia faces the “most difficult and dangerous security environment” since World War II.

Morrison used his speech to the Lowy Institute, an Australian think tank, to announce a plan for a new naval base on the country’s east coast that will support nuclear-powered submarines under the AUKUS partnership struck last year with the United States and the United Kingdom. The $7.5 billion base will also “enable the regular visiting of U.S. and U.K. nuclear-powered submarines,” he said.

The prime minister said missiles that he promised Ukraine last week were now “on the ground” and that Australia had fast-tracked 1,700 visas for Ukrainians since the crisis began. Asked after his speech whether he was confident Ukraine would emerge from the war independent and whole, however, Morrison said no.

“I’m not confident of that outcome at this point,” he said. “Nor can Mr. Putin be confident of the outcome he thought would come so easily.”

KYIV, Ukraine — The groom wore a helmet. The bride wore fatigues.

So did the priest and the wedding party, with comrades in the Ukrainian defense forces who lined up for the marital procession carrying shoulder-fired rocket-propelled grenades and antitank missiles.

Others guests included Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, who wore a bulletproof vest and took a selfie with the bride, and a throng of journalists invited to watch the spectacle of a wedding next to a checkpoint in the midst of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Despite the surreal nature of Lesya Filimonova and Valeriy Filimonov’s marriage in the Ukrainian capital on Sunday, the moment in some ways offered a glimpse of normality amid the conflict. It showed, the mayor said, that “life continues and the people live and their love helps the war.”