Self-proclaimed Donetsk People Republic militia fire a 2A36 Giatsint-B 152 mm field gun at a position not far from Avdeevka, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, 22 November 2022. On 24 February 2022 Russian troops entered the Ukrainian territory in what the Russian president declared a 'Special Military Operation', starting an armed conflict that has provoked destruction and a humanitarian crisis. EPA-EFE/ALESSANDRO GUERRAEuropean lawmakers voted in favour of a resolution calling Russia a state sponsor of terrorism.
The move is largely symbolic, as the European Union does not have a legal framework in place to back it up. At the same time, the bloc has already imposed unprecedented sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has urged the United States and other countries to declare Russia a state sponsor of terrorism, accusing its forces of targeting civilians, which Moscow denies.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has so far refused to list Russia despite resolutions in both chambers of Congress urging him to do so.
The U.S. State Department currently names four countries - Cuba, North Korea, Iran and Syria - as state sponsors of terrorism, meaning they are subject to a defence export ban and financial restrictions.
In the EU, the parliaments of four countries have so far designated Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism, according to the European Parliamentary Research Service: Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland.
(Reporting by Sabine Siebold and Bart Meijer, editing by Marine Strauss and Bernadette Baum)
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