Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wants the United States to officially recognize Russia as a country that supports terrorism. He said that Friday evening in a video message specifically addressed to the US. His request was in response to the alleged Russian attack on a prison camp in occupied territory.
More than 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed in the attack, the Ukrainian president said. Earlier in the day, Ukraine reported that 130 people would also be injured.
“I make a special appeal to the United States. A decision is necessary and it is now,” said Zelensky. “This is a deliberate Russian act of war, a deliberate mass murder of Ukrainian prisoners of war. It is further confirmation that Russia is a terrorist state. The country is now the largest source of terrorism in the world.”
‘State-sponsored terrorism’ is terrorist violence carried out with the active support of the country’s government. If America notices that countries support terrorism, they will be sanctioned. These sanctions include a ban on the export and sale of defense weapons by the US.
The US State Department currently recognizes four countries as supporting terrorism: Syria, Iran, North Korea and Cuba.
Ukraine’s defense ministry says the Wagner group, a Russian paramilitary organization, is behind the attack on the detention center in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region. Russia denies being behind the attack. It says Ukraine shelled the camp itself.
Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign affairs chief, has condemned the recent Russian violence against Ukraine. “The European Union supports all measures to ensure that human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian law are held accountable,” he said in a statement Friday night.