Descriere
The large-scale, unprovoked military operations of the Russian Federation against Ukraine from February to March 2014 posed a significant challenge to the functionality of the collective security system established after 1945, as well as to the capacity of international law to entail legal effects when the political enforcement mechanism of the United Nations Security Council was deadlocked by the veto power. The current research offers a legal analysis of the aggression during the 2014-2015 period, structured around three factual components: the illegal annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol town, the military operations in the Donetsk (Donbas) and Lugansk regions, and the downing of the civilian flight, Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, on July 17, 2014. This is followed by an examination of the reactions of international organizations.
The legal characterization of the military and political actions of the Russian Federation was a “crime of aggression”, and the current study analyzes as well the Conclusions of the European Union’s
Foreign Affairs Council of March 3, 2014, and Romania’s position, respectively, which ultimately led to a consensus around the Romanian proposal to legally characterize the Russian Federation’s action as a “crime of aggression.”
