Abstract

On 24 February 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion against Ukraine. This invasion marks a new milestone in the ongoing armed struggle between the two states since 2014, when Russia annexed a part of Ukraine, namely Crimea and Sevastopol and supported armed resistance in the Eastern part of the country. President Putin pointed to a number of international legal justifications for the invasion, i.e. self-defense, humanitarian intervention and perhaps intervention by invitation. This article examines all possible Russian justifications for the use of force, and concludes, that they have no basis in lex lata international law. However, the arguments advanced seem similar to the slippery slope arguments used by Western powers in their armed conflicts in the past two decades. The paper also offers a glance at the response of the international community to the invasion.