The EU should designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism, according to Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkēvičs.
“We see all the brutality of Russian forces, that actually resemble a lot of ISIS, who we have been always calling a terrorist organisation,” Rinkēvičs said in an interview with Politico on Sunday. “Let’s call a spade a spade.”
Ukraine’s military has accused Russia of deliberately shelling a jail with Ukrainian prisoners of war in the Donetsk region on Friday. Russia’s Defence Ministry said Ukraine was responsible for the strike.
According to Rinkēvičs, the EU should step up its efforts to isolate Moscow and send more military aid to Kyiv.
He also suggested that EU countries should stop issuing visas to Russian citizens.
“Society needs to feel it,” Rinkēvičs told Politico. “If we condemn countries like Iran, Russia is not different.”
The Ukrainian government has also urged its allies to designate Russia as a terrorist state.
“Formal legal recognition of Russia as a terrorist state, in particular, recognition by the US Department of State, is needed not as a political gesture but as an effective defence of the free world,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video message on Saturday.
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