Russia on Monday boycotted hearings at the UN’s highest court during which Ukraine will argue that Moscow has falsely applied genocide law in justifying its invasion and will seek an emergency order halting hostilities. Hearings began at 9am GMT at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague without legal representation for Russia. “The court regrets the non-appearance of the Russian Federation in these oral proceedings,” International Court of Justice President Joan Donoghue said. The Russian ambassador to the Netherlands, Alexander Shulgin, wrote to the court and “indicated that his government did not intend to participate,” she said. A spokesperson for the Russian Embassy in the Netherlands did not reply to a request for comment. Ukraine’s representative at the court, Anton Korynevych, criticised Russia for not showing up at the ICJ’s Peace Palace headquarters. “The fact that Russia’s seats are empty speaks loudly. They are not here in this court of law, they are on a battlefield, waging aggressive war against my country,” he said. “This is how Russia solves disputes.” Kyiv lodged an urgent case at the ICJ on February 27, saying that Russia had illegally justified its war by falsely alleging genocide in Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Ukraine has asked the court to take provisional measures ordering Russia to “immediately suspend the military operations”, pending a full judgment that could take years. Korynevych added that the court “has a responsibility to act.” “Russia must be stopped, and the court has a role to play in stopping that,” he said Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Russia’s “special military action” is needed “to protect people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide”, meaning those whose first or only language is Russian, in eastern Ukraine. Ukraine’s suit argues that the claim of genocide is untrue, and in any case does not provide legal justification for invasion. The case centres on the interpretation of a 1948 treaty on the prevention of genocide, signed by both countries. The treaty names the ICJ as the forum for resolving disputes between signatories.