The article is aimed at determining the international legal content of the situation of execution, application and termination of the Ukrainian-Russian international agreements in the context of the ongoing interstate conflict. Attention is paid to the impact of the conflict on the participation of Ukraine and the Russian Federation in collective agreements, both universal and regional, as well as on aspects of the validity and application of bilateral interstate, intergovernmental and interdepartmental agreements. The specifics of the application of collective and bilateral Ukrainian-Russian agreements due to the circumstances of the conflict are highlighted. The universal norms of international law applicable to the validity of interstate treaties in the conditions of interstate armed conflict are studied. Peculiarities of application of the requirements of international humanitarian law to the Ukrainian-Russian conflict are characterized.

The issues covered in the article did not have extensive research until 2014 and were considered either in the dimension of a particular industry (for example, legal cooperation) or subject (agreements on the stay of the Black Sea Fleet in Ukraine), as well as in the measurement of Ukraine’s succession. After the beginning of the Russian aggression, fundamental studies of the state of contractual relations between Ukraine and the Russian Federation were studied in the fundamental works of the prominent domestic international lawyer Olexander  Zadorozhny, but his tragic untimely death suspended the development of the relevant key area of domestic legal doctrine.

The purpose of the article is to establish, taking into account the requirements of universal international law and the relevant collective and bilateral treaty framework, the specifics of validity, application and termination of Ukrainian-Russian international treaties in the face of ongoing Russian aggression, and develop appropriate recommendations for public authorities. At the same time, the issue of the impact of the situation of interstate conflict on the application of bilateral agreements should be distinguished from the issue of application of such agreements in the temporarily occupied territories by the parties to the conflict and the use of bilateral agreements to obtain political and legal benefits.

The conclusions state that modern universal international law does not have an imperatively defined approach to aspects of the validity of international treaties in the context of interstate armed conflict. Enshrined in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties of 1969, the mechanisms of termination, suspension, withdrawal from the treaty should be assessed in the light of the provisions of Article 73 of this convention, which provides for additional dispositiveness of the state’s actions in relation to its own treaties in conditions of armed conflict. Approved by the UN Commission on International Law in 2011, the Articles on the Effects of Armed Conflicts on Treaties, as the doctrinal regulator, are important primarily in considering the specifics of situations of aggression and selfdefence, as well as for the list of agreements, that cannot be terminated in conflict. This situation leaves a certain amount of discretionary for actions of Ukraine to establish the validity or invalidity of certain categories of bilateral agreements with Russia.

Ukraine’s practice of terminating bilateral and collective agreements due to Russian aggression is sustainable. At the same time, Ukraine’s procedures for withdrawing from bilateral agreements with the Russian Federation remain too bureaucratic and therefore excessively slow. Currently, the situation of the conflict in a significant number of cases is considered by Ukraine as a factor influencing the situation of application of the agreement, rather than as a reason for its termination or suspension. The situation of the interstate conflict has practically not affected the situation of Ukraine’s observance and implementation of collective and universal agreements, with the exception of the CIS agreements.

Bibliography

Authored books

1. Zadorozhnii O, International Law in the Relations of Ukraine and the Russian Federation (K.I.S. 2017) (in English).

Websites

2. Caflisch L, ‘Articles on the Effects of Armed Conflicts on Treaties. Introductory Note’ (UN, 2011) <https://legal.un.org/avl/ha/aeact/aeact.html> (accessed: 29.08.2020) (in English)