Moscow could designate Ukraine’s military a terrorist organization – diplomat
The Russian Foreign Ministry believes that it’s appropriate to designate the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), the Ukrainian military intelligence directorate (GUR) and the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) as terrorist organizations, Moscow’s ambassador-at-large for Ukraine’s crimes, Rodion Miroshnik, has said.
Such a move is basically “a question of time” as it only requires initiative on the part of Russian lawmakers and authorities, Miroshnik told RIA Novosti on Wednesday.
The AFU, GUR and SBU have essentially “done everything” to be branded terrorist organizations since the outbreak of the conflict between Moscow and Kiev in February 2022, he said.
“It makes no sense to forgive the crimes that they’ve already committed and may still commit. Nowhere in the world should they be treated as an adequate armed unit existing in the international legal field,” the diplomat said.
As for recognizing Ukraine’s military and security agencies as terrorist organizations on an international level, “as long as they have customers in the form of the Anglo-Saxons, the Americans and the EU, who legalize their activities, it’s problematic to do so… At the Russian level, it’s possible,” Miroshnik stressed.
In early February, Russian President Vladimir Putin said “what is called the Armed Forces of Ukraine has turned into a terrorist organization that attacks ambulances.”
The president was commenting on Ukrainian strikes targeting civilian residential areas across Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). In January, one paramedic was killed and another wounded in two separate incidents in the town of Gorlovka.
On both occasions, the ambulance crews came under fire while they were trying to provide assistance to victims following a round of shelling. Late last month, Putin suggested that Moscow should make the “political and historic” decision to recognize Ukraine’s state agencies such as the GUR and SBU as terrorist organizations.
”The entire Kiev regime is in one way or another based on the crimes that it commits on a daily basis,” he insisted.
As an example of such crimes, he mentioned the shooting down of a Russian Il-76 transport plane with 65 Ukrainian POWs aboard in January. The Ukrainian military hit the plane, despite the GUR and SBU knowing who was aboard, Putin insisted. Kiev has refused to take responsibility for the attack.
Last year, the GUR’s chief Kirill Budanov claimed that his agency was behind the assassinations of “many” public figures. Throughout the conflict, Russia security services reported thwarting numerous terrorist attacks and sabotage attempts they said were masterminded by Kiev.
