NATO's Parliamentary Committee has officially labelled Russia a "terrorist state," Ukrainian senior officials and state media have reported.
"The NATO Parliamentary Assembly has called for the creation of a special international tribunal on Russian aggression and recognised it as a terrorist state," the Chairman of the Permanent Delegation of Ukraine to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, Yehor Cherniev, wrote on Monday on his personal Facebook page.
Cherniev added that "all 30 NATO countries supported the proposals of our Delegation", and that delegates from each NATO Member State agreed that "Ukraine's membership [of NATO] is desirable and important for the Alliance itself".
Cherniev further claimed that "it is very pleasing" that Ukraine's view of Russia as a "terrorist state" is "gradually becoming mainstream on the highest international platforms", and that the "adoption of this resolution is an important political step that reflects sentiments in Western parliamentary circles, and therefore influences countries' leadership [and] decision-making".
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The latest resolution recognising Russia as a terrorist state is not the first to have been passed by a major international organisation.
On 13 October, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe passed a similar motion which "declare[d] the current Russian regime as a terrorist one." Russia was expelled from the Council of Europe in March, following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February.
At the national level, several other institutions have officially declared Russia a terrorist state, including the Senate of Poland, as well as the Czech, Latvian, and Estonian Parliaments. Major international human rights organisations, including Human Rights Watch, have similarly alleged that Russia has committed "unspeakable" and "deliberate" war crimes in several parts of occupied Ukraine.
The NATO Parliamentary Committee's recent decision mirrors one which will likely soon be taken by the European Parliament, which is set to vote on Wednesday as to whether or not to officially recognise Russia as a "state sponsor of terrorism."
