Russian claims about alleged “serious procedural violations” in the work of the Arbitration Tribunal of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague and an “illegitimate composition of the court” are unfounded and aimed at diverting attention from the Kremlin’s real goal – avoiding responsibility for aggression against Ukraine. The manipulations were exposed by StopFake.

Back in November 2018, Russian military forces rammed, shelled, and seized three Ukrainian naval vessels together with their crews in neutral waters of the Kerch Strait. The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea ordered Russia to immediately release the 24 Ukrainian sailors and return the vessels Berdyansk, Nikopol, and Yany Kapu to Ukraine. However, already at the hearing stage, Russia refused to participate in the proceedings and from the outset demonstrated its readiness to ignore any decisions.

In April 2019, Ukraine filed a claim against Russia in arbitration under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The Permanent Court of Arbitration acted as the registry in this case, and hearings began in the autumn of 2021. Russia attempted to challenge the tribunal’s jurisdiction and even sought the disqualification of judges, inventing “procedural violations” to delay the process, but all these attempts failed.

On July 29, 2025, the Arbitration Tribunal dismissed Russia’s objections and confirmed its legitimacy by four votes to one, with only the Russian judge Alexander Vylegzhanin voting against. After that, the Kremlin announced its withdrawal from the process, which propaganda presents as a “halt to the proceedings”. In reality, Russia’s formal withdrawal does not mean the termination of the case, and Ukraine continues to defend its position.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine emphasizes that the Kremlin’s actions are an attempt to evade international legal responsibility for the seizure of Ukrainian naval vessels and the nine-month detention of 24 sailors in Russian prisons. “Realizing the inevitability of responsibility, Russia hastily declared its withdrawal from the process at the final stage,” the MFA stressed.