Ukrainians in Malta join a global protest denouncing Russia as a “terrorist” state.
Video – Viktorija Nikolla
The Ukrainian community in Malta has joined global protests that support the idea that Russia should be designated as a terrorist state.
The silent rally was organized near the Triton Fountain in Valletta, and saw several Ukrainians waving their flags and holding placards that read: “Freedom for the heroes of Mariupol”, “Thousands of women and Ukrainian children were raped by Russian occupiers”, “Moscow is the capital of terrorism” among other messages.
During the rally, the Foundation for the Ukrainian Community of Malta honored the memory of the Ukrainian prisoners of war killed last Friday, as well as all the other victims of the ongoing war after the -invasion by Russia of its neighboring sovereign state.
More than 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed in Russian-occupied Donetsk after an attack on Olenivka. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denounced the attack and called it “a deliberate Russian war crime, a deliberate mass killing of Ukrainian prisoners of war”.
The captured fighters – who Russia’s defense ministry said included members of the Azov battalion, which defended the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol – were to be protected by guarantees guaranteed by the United Nations and the -International Committee of the Red Cross, Zelenskyy said, as he joined his foreign minister to urge those organizations to intervene and investigate.
On Sunday, Russia said it had formally invited the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross to investigate.
Russia: a terrorist state?
On Sunday, Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkēvičs said the EU should designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism after the attack that killed dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war.
Rinkēvičs compared Moscow to Daesh (ISIS) in his comments to Politico, saying there are many similarities as he urged the international community to call a spade a spade.
The Latvian Foreign Minister also called for the confiscation of Russian government assets and for EU countries to restrict the issuance of visas to Russians, with an exemption for humanitarian reasons.
On the other side of the world, the US Senate unanimously supported a non-binding resolution asking Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken to designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism for -its attacks in Ukraine. The nomination is supported by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
The label is currently reserved for North Korea, Syria, Cuba and Iran. However, Blinken has, so far, resisted the move.
The Ukrainian government asked its Western partners to designate Russia as a “terrorist state.”