WEAPONIZING SELF-DEFENCE: ARTICLE 51 IN THE RUSSIA–UKRAINE CONFLICT

Weaponisation of self-defence in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict 2014 2025. This highstakes
postmortem carries out the "legal gymnastics" of Article 51 of the UN Charter throughout the friction
between Russia and Ukraine for over a decade. An exceptional ,narrowly drafted words of art 51 of un
charter is being weaponised by being overused or invoked under the legal cover of “rule based
order”. In this article ,we delve into the concept where the states or policy makers repeatedly invoke
“the emergency exceptional clause” pass round the given rules when it suits their interest, diluting its
core concept to advance geopolitical goals 825Now we are not just going to check “black letter” boxes
alone, i.e not just sticking around the narrow , formal legal text .instead , how the law actually made, it
looks and function after a prolonged period of intense warfare. Decoding how the scholars, courts,
and states have interpreted Article 51its connection to art 2(4),the Security Council, and doctrines
such as necessity , proportionality and imminence.