THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Ukraine on Monday accused Russia of seeking to illegally seize control of the strategically important Sea of Azov and Kerch Strait, as hearings opened in a high-stakes arbitration case between Kyiv and Moscow.
The hearings at the Permanent Court of Arbitration are the latest in a string of international legal cases involving Russia and Ukraine linked to Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and its 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, even as fighting continues to rage on battlefields in Ukraine.
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THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Ukraine on Monday accused Russia of seeking to illegally seize control of the strategically important Sea of Azov and Kerch Strait, as hearings opened in a high-stakes arbitration case between Kyiv and Moscow.
The delegations of Ukraine and Russia attend the start of PCA Case between Ukraine and the Russian Federation in the Netherlands, Monday, Sept. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Phil Nijhuis)
The Ukrainian delegation at the start of PCA Case between Ukraine and the Russian Federation in the Netherlands, Monday, Sept. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Phil Nijhuis)
The Ukrainian delegation at the start of PCA Case between Ukraine and the Russian Federation in the Netherlands, Monday, Sept. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Phil Nijhuis)
The Russian delegation at the start of PCA Case between Ukraine and the Russian Federation in the Netherlands, Monday, Sept. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Phil Nijhuis)
The Russian delegation at the start of PCA Case between Ukraine and the Russian Federation in the Netherlands, Monday, Sept. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Phil Nijhuis)
The Russian delegation at the start of PCA Case between Ukraine and the Russian Federation in the Netherlands, Monday, Sept. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Phil Nijhuis)
“Russia wants to take the Sea of Azov and Kerch Strait for itself, and so it has built a great gate at the entrance to keep international shipping out while allowing small Russian river vessels in,” Ukrainian representative Anton Korynevych told a panel of arbitrators.
The gate he referred to is a bridge built by Russia across the Kerch Strait after the annexation of Crimea. The $3.5-billion, 19-kilometer (12-mile) bridge linking the Black and Azov seas carries road and rail traffic on separate sections and is vital to sustaining Russia’s military operations in southern Ukraine.
“The bridge is unlawful and it must come down,” Korynevych told the arbitration panel.
Ukraine filed the case in 2016, two years after Russia annexed Crimea. It accuses Moscow of subsequently breaching a United Nations maritime treaty by building the bridge, barring Ukrainian fishermen from waters they traditionally fished, damaging the environment and plundering underwater archeological sites.
Kyiv is seeking unspecified compensation.
Russia insists the arbitration court does not have jurisdiction. It says that if its five judges decide they do have jurisdiction, the court should dismiss Ukraine's claims.
“Ukraine’s accusations in this case are, of course, completely groundless and hopeless,” Russian Agent Gennady Kuzmin told the panel.
He argued that the Sea of Azov and Kerch Strait constitute “internal waters” that are not covered by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the treaty Ukraine alleges Russia is breaching.
After Monday's two opening statements, the panel hearings will continue for days behind closed doors. A final ruling could take years.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
The Ukrainian delegation at the start of PCA Case between Ukraine and the Russian Federation in the Netherlands, Monday, Sept. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Phil Nijhuis)
The delegations of Ukraine and Russia attend the start of PCA Case between Ukraine and the Russian Federation in the Netherlands, Monday, Sept. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Phil Nijhuis)
The Ukrainian delegation at the start of PCA Case between Ukraine and the Russian Federation in the Netherlands, Monday, Sept. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Phil Nijhuis)
The Ukrainian delegation at the start of PCA Case between Ukraine and the Russian Federation in the Netherlands, Monday, Sept. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Phil Nijhuis)
The Russian delegation at the start of PCA Case between Ukraine and the Russian Federation in the Netherlands, Monday, Sept. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Phil Nijhuis)
The Russian delegation at the start of PCA Case between Ukraine and the Russian Federation in the Netherlands, Monday, Sept. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Phil Nijhuis)
The Russian delegation at the start of PCA Case between Ukraine and the Russian Federation in the Netherlands, Monday, Sept. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Phil Nijhuis)
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Authorities have reported no arrests after a weekend mass shooting killed four people and left 17 others injured in what police described as a targeted “hit” by multiple shooters who opened fire outside a popular Alabama nightspot.
The shooting late Saturday in the popular Five Points South entertainment district of Birmingham rocked an area of restaurants and bars that is often bustling on weekend nights. The mass shooting, one of several this year in the city, unnerved residents and left officials at home and beyond pleading for help to both solve the crime and address the broader problem of gun violence.
“The priority is to find these shooters and get them off our streets,” Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin said a day after the shooting.
The mayor planned a morning news conference Monday to provide updates on the case.
The shooting occurred on the sidewalk and street outside Hush, a lounge in the entertainment district, where blood stains were still visible on the sidewalk outside the venue on Sunday morning.
Birmingham Police Chief Scott Thurmond said authorities believe the shooting targeted one of the people who was killed, possibly in a murder-for-hire. A vehicle pulled up and “multiple shooters” got out and began firing, then fled the scene, he said.
“We believe that there was a ‘hit,’ if you will, on that particular person,” Thurmond said.
Police said about 100 shell casings were recovered. Thurmond said law enforcement was working to determine what weapons were used, but they believe some of the gunfire was “fully automatic.” Investigators also were trying to determine whether anyone fired back, creating a crossfire.
In a statement late Sunday, police said the shooters are believed to have used “machine gun conversion devices” that make semiautomatic weapons fire more rapidly.
Officers found two men and a woman on a sidewalk with gunshot wounds and they were pronounced dead there. An additional male gunshot victim was pronounced dead at a hospital, according to police.
Police identified the three victims found on the sidewalk as Anitra Holloman, 21, of the Birmingham suburb of Bessemer, Tahj Booker, 27, of Birmingham, and Carlos McCain, 27, of Birmingham. The fourth victim pronounced dead at the hospital was pending identification.
By the early hours of Sunday, victims began showing up at hospitals and police subsequently identified 17 people with injuries, some of them life-threatening. Four of the surviving victims, in conditions ranging from good to critical, were being treated at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital on Sunday afternoon, according to Alicia Rohan, a hospital spokeswoman.
The area of Birmingham where the gunfire erupted is popular with young adults because of its proximity to the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the plethora of nearby restaurants and bars.
The shooting was the 31st mass killing of 2024, of which 23 were shootings, according to James Alan Fox, a criminologist and professor at Northeastern University, who oversees a mass killings database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with the university.
Three of the nation’s 23 mass shootings this year were in Birmingham, including two earlier quadruple homicides.
Woodfin expressed frustration at what he described as an epidemic of gun violence in America and the city.
“We find ourselves in 2024, where gun violence is at an epidemic level, an epidemic crisis in our country. And the city of Birmingham, unfortunately, finds itself at the tip of that spear,” he said.
Associated Press writer Jonathan Mattise in Nashville, Tennessee, contributed to this report.
CORRECTS DATE hat appears to be a bullet hole is visible in the window of Hush, a hookah and cigar lounge, in Birmingham, Ala. on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024, the day after a mass shooting took place. (AP Photo/Kim Chandler)
Blood stains were visible on the sidewalk outside of a nightclub in Birmingham, Ala. on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024, after a mass shooting took place. (AP Photo/Kim Chandler)
A firefighter cleans blood stains off the sidewalk outside a nightclub in Birmingham, Ala. on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024, after a mass shooting took place. (AP Photo/Kim Chandler)
This image provided by WBMA shows police tape near the scene of a shooting in Birmingham, Ala., Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (Bill Castle/WBMA via AP)
This image provided by WBMA shows police working on the scene of a shooting in Birmingham, Ala., Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (Bill Castle/WBMA via AP)
Drops of blood remain at the scene of a fatal Saturday night shooting in the Five Points neighborhood of Birmingham, Ala., Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Vasha Hunt)
This image provided by WBMA shows police and emergency vehicles in the entertainment district after a shooting in Birmingham, Ala., Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (Bill Castle/WBMA via AP)
The scene of a fatal Saturday night shooting outside Hush, a hookah lounge, in the Five Points neighborhood of Birmingham, Ala., Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Vasha Hunt)
Search underway for suspects in Alabama mass shooting that killed 4 and injured 17
Search underway for suspects in Alabama mass shooting that killed 4 and injured 17
This image provided by WBMA shows bystanders near the scene of a shooting in Birmingham, Ala., Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (Bill Castle/WBMA via AP)
