PACE designates Russia a terrorist state

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe just approved a resolution designating the Russian Federation as a terrorist state with 99 yes votes and one no vote.

Today at the PACE autumn session in Strasbourg, a document titled “Further escalation of the Russian Federation’s aggression against Ukraine” was presented, Oleksiy Honcharenko, Ukrainian MP, said.

In his post, he stated that “this is a strong signal of a global scale, and it is one more step toward recognizing Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism.”

He also emphasized that the Council of Europe was encouraging the provision of weaponry for the first time in history, specifically air defense systems to protect civilians.

The resolution was supported by 99 delegates, one abstained. Therefore, PACE recognizes the current Russian regime as terrorist and calls on the participating countries:

• provide Ukraine with air defense systems;
• unequivocally condemn the pseudo-referendums held in the Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Kherson regions of Ukraine;
• to condemn the attempted annexation of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Kherson regions as a violation of international law and a serious threat to international peace and security and to avoid recognizing any consequences thereof;
• provide financial support for the recovery of Ukraine;
• speed up the creation of the Special International Tribunal to bring to justice the crime of aggression against Ukraine;
• to create a comprehensive international compensation mechanism, including an international register of losses, and actively cooperate with the Ukrainian authorities in this direction.

The resolution urged Russia to allow humanitarian missions of the UN, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Council of Europe or any other international organization or member state to facilitate the exchange of prisoners of war and the release of political prisoners.
The resolution also contains a clause stating that any negotiations will take place on Ukraine’s terms.

A day before, the UN General Assembly in an extraordinary session condemned the Russian Federation’s attempted unlawful annexation of the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia and demanded that Moscow remove all of its military forces from Ukrainian land right away. 143 countries supported the UN resolution calling Russia to withdraw from Ukraine.