Recognise Russia as a terrorist state and strengthen sanctions - Verkhovna Rada

This is stated in the official notification.

"The deliberate mass killing of Ukrainian prisoners of war by the terrorist Kremlin regime is a cynical and brutal war crime that has no statute of limitations. This is a violation of the principles and norms of international law, the laws and customs of war, in particular the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War of 1949 and the Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions of August 12, 1949, relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts, of June 8, 1977. Moreover, this is a brutal violation of moral standards and civilizational achievements of humanity", it is noted. 

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine also noted that the killing of Ukrainian prisoners of war in Olenivka is an attempt by the Russian authorities to hide the facts of torture and abuse of the soldiers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, as well as shootings and other war crimes committed by it in the temporarily occupied territory of the Donetsk region.

"By its actions against Ukraine and the Ukrainian people, Russia once again proved that it is a terrorist state that continues the xenophobic criminal practices of the totalitarian Soviet regime. The war crime in Olenivka, for which the criminal Russian government is fully responsible, is part of the genocidal policy that the Russian Federation has purposefully pursued against the Ukrainian people for centuries", it is noted. 

Thus, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine appealed to the world community with the following appeal:

1. to condemn Russia's violation of international humanitarian law and take all possible measures to conduct an objective investigation of the crime in Olenivka, in order to bring to justice all those involved in the crime;

2. to take measures to compel the Russian Federation to comply with the provisions of the 1949 Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War and other norms of international humanitarian law, including the provision of free access to places of detention of Ukrainian prisoners of war for representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross and other international humanitarian organizations;

3. to recognize the Russian Federation as a terrorist state and take measures for its comprehensive international isolation by: ending all types of cooperation with it and freezing contacts with its representatives at all levels;

4. to increase sanctioned economic and political pressure on Russia in order to undermine its economic capacity to continue the war against Ukraine and build new invasion plans;

5. to realize the seriousness of the threat to the entire world legal order and the principles of human existence as a moral being and to use all possible tools of cooperation for the sake of the future world, which will make it impossible to repeat such criminal military actions.

The appeal was signed by the chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, Ruslan Stefanchuk, the first deputy chairman, Oleksandr Kornienko, and the deputy chairman, Olena Kondratiuk.