Kiev - 6 March 2017

1. Exterior of Ukraine Foreign Ministry

2. Flags outside ministry

3. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian) Mariana Betsa, Spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine:

"On 16 January (2017), we also demanded the court to hold these hearings to determine the so-called provisional measures for Russia in order to prevent a deterioration (of the situation in eastern Ukraine and in Crimea), because the trial (which opened at the U.N.'s highest judicial organ on Monday) will continue for a few years on merit. Meanwhile, we need to do something to stop the suffering. People's lives have the highest value. That's why our main goal was to ask the court to avoid taking any actions which could make the situation worse - violations of conventions, discrimination of residents, killings, tortures and acts of terrorism."

FILE: Hrabove, Donetsk region - 19 July 2014

4. Various of MH17 plane crash site

FILE: Hrabove, Donetsk region - 21 July 2014

5. Crane lifting pieces of plane wreckage at MH17 plane crash site

6. Emergency workers standing next to wreckage at MH17 plane crash site

7. Large piece of wreckage being overturned at MH17 plane crash site

FILE: Mariupol, Donetsk region - 24 January 2015

8. Various shots showing the aftermath of shelling in residential area of Mariupol

Kiev - 6 March 2017

9. Wide of leader of Crimean Tatars Mustafa Dzhemilev in his Kiev apartment

10. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Mustafa Dzhemilev, Crimean Tatars leader:

"Some of the most awful crimes occupiers do in occupied Crimea are kidnappings and killings of people. Such crimes hadn't been committed even during Stalin's times. The 'procedure' of killing people existed then (referring to legal procedures that justified killings back then) and now without any (legal) procedure, each person can be disappeared at any moment. Today we know that about 17 persons, mainly young people, were kidnapped. We found a few bodies and the rest are missing."

11. Cutaway of Crimean Tatars flag

12. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Mustafa Dzhemilev, Crimean Tatars leader:

"I think the tendency to repress people will continue. Because the occupation regime will not be able to exist without repressions. Of course, if there was a democracy and people could express an opinion, they (occupiers) would not remain (in power) there (in Crimea). So they rely on repression only. They (Russia) started to have the opportunity to repress people after the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatars was officially banned as an extremist organisation."

13. Various of Mustafa Dzhemilev watching the hearing of UN International Court of Justice

FILE: Crimea - March 2014

14. Various of military vehicles and armed men on the roads and streets of Crimea

Kiev - 6 March 2017

15. Ruslan Bortnik, Director of Ukrainian Institute for Analysis and Management of Policy

16. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian) Ruslan Bortnik, Director of Ukrainian Institute for Analysis and Management of Policy:

"I think that Ukraine doesn't expect the decision to be made or implemented very soon. The aims of this lawsuit at the international court is a bit different. The aim is to attract once again the international community's attention to the Ukrainian problem, to the problem of Crimea and Donbass, to the absence of any legal status of these territories, to this unsettled crisis."

Donetsk - 20 February 2017

17. Various of Donetsk streets

18. Various of passports issued by self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic

Ukraine's deputy foreign minister on Monday accused Russia of financing terrorism by shipping arms, ammunition and funds to separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine and of discriminating against non-Russians in the annexed Crimean Peninsula.

The charges came as a case between Kiev and Moscow opened at the U.N.'s highest judicial organ.

The International Court of Justice case, which also seeks reparations for the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, opens a new legal front in the bitter, drawn-out conflict between Russia and its neighbour Ukraine.

The Amsterdam-to-Kuala Lumpur Flight MH17 was shot down on July 17, 2014, by a Buk surface-to-air missile over conflict-torn eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board.

International investigators have concluded that the Buk missile that shot down MH17 was fired from Russia-backed rebel-controlled territory in eastern Ukraine by a mobile launcher trucked in from Russia and hastily returned there, a finding that Moscow rejects.

The main case, in which Ukraine is asking the court to rule that Russia is breaching treaties on terrorist financing and racial discrimination, is likely to take months or years to resolve.

But judges will likely take just weeks to rule on whether to grant the provisional measures sought by Kiev at the hearing Monday.

They include an order to halt financing to rebels in eastern Ukraine and to stop discriminating against non-Russians in Crimea.

Russia will present its legal arguments on Tuesday.