Situationen i Ukraina just nu, del 3

(1) Even if it accepted that Russia’s “occupation” of Crimea was illegal (which since this is the view of the British government it might well do) the High Court would almost certainly refuse to assess the amount of the cost of this “occupation” to Ukraine. It would probably say this was not something it was competent to do and that this was a matter for the International Court of Justice in the Hague and not for the High Court in London.

In the absence of any figure for the cost of the “occupation” to Ukraine, the High Court would almost certainly refuse to make a set-off. This is quite apart from the fact that it would anyway probably say that it cannot set-off compensation arising from a political conflict against a commercial debt.

(2) The plaintiff seeking recovery of the debt would anyway not be the Russian government, which had “occupied” Crimea, but Russia’s National Welfare Fund. It is not clear that Russia’s National Welfare Fund is liable for the actions of Russia’s government. The High Court would almost certainly decide that it isn’t.
This idea also looks like a non-starter and the Ukrainians are not proceeding with it.

Ukraine demands “disclosure” about Crimea
The idea is that Ukraine uses the British legal procedure known as “disclosure” to force Russia to release confidential information about the events leading up to Crimea’s unification with Russia. The idea seems to be that in order to avoid being put in this position Russia would write off the debt.

This makes no sense. Why would the Russians agree to cancel the debt simply because Ukraine had obtained an order from a British court for disclosure? Such an order would be unenforceable and the Russians would simply refuse to comply with it. The High Court would not cancel the debt simply because Russia had not complied with the order. The two issues are completely unrelated. As a matter of fact it is most unlikely the British courts would make such an order at all.