Zelenskyy tells the world Russia must be recognised as terrorist state

KATERYNA TYSHCHENKO – SATURDAY, 30 JULY 2022, 22:37

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has stressed that the entire world must not only denounce the crime Russia committed in the Olenivka prison camp, where several dozen Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed by shelling, but also recognise Russia as a terrorist state.

Source: Zelenskyy’s video address

Quote: "Condemnation at the level of political rhetoric is not enough for this mass murder. What sort of relationship can one maintain with a terrorist [state] after an attack like that? What kind of business can one do with a country like that?

[…] formal legal recognition of Russia as a terrorist state – and in particular, recognition by the United States Department of State – is needed not as a political gesture, but as an effective means of defending the free world. The decision [to recognise Russia as a terrorist state] will instantly complicate the existence of this terrorist state, and will automatically cut various political and business ties that Russia would otherwise be able to maintain.

All this will happen, that’s 100% sure. It will have to be done. It’s only a matter of time and the format that this decision will take. And the sooner it happens, the less evil Russia will have time to inflict."

Details: Zelenskyy stressed that Ukraine will gather all the necessary evidence of the crime Russian occupying forces committed in Olenivka. He added that all those guilty of the crime – those who approved it, organised it, were involved in the actual shelling or knew about it – "they will all be found".

"But still, this is not enough now. There must be legal steps on the part of the world community against the terrorist state," Zelenskyy emphasised.

Earlier:

• On the morning of 29 July, Russian-aligned propaganda media reported the shelling of a prison camp in Olenivka, in Donetsk Oblast, where Ukrainian prisoners are being held. Russia has claimed that at least 53 prisoners were killed.
• The Ukrainian Directorate of Intelligence believes that the killing of Ukrainian prisoners in Olenivka was committed by the Wagner Group [a Russian private military company - ed.] on the personal instructions of Yevgeny Prigozhin [its owner], without coordination with the leadership of the Russian Ministry of Defence.
• The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) later disclosed intercepted telephone conversations in which Russian occupiers confirmed that Russian troops were responsible for the explosion in the prison camp in the Russian-occupied town of Olenivka, which killed at least 53 Ukrainian PoWs.

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