The administration of Joe Biden and the US Congress are discussing a draft document declaring Russia an “aggressor state,” as the ‘Hill’ newspaper reports, citing Republican congressmen’s aides and the draft document itself.
As a congressional aide familiar with the matter told the newspaper, the Biden administration told the Ukrainian side, which asked to declare Russia a “state sponsor of terrorism,” that it would not support this, but came up with an alternative designation. According to the aide, it “doesn’t even exist in US domestic or international law.” He called it “an unfinished PR measure that will not punish Russia and will not help the Ukrainian people.”
“The version of the draft document obtained exclusively by Hill states that the president, after taking the measure, can declare Russia an ‘aggressor state’ and will have the authority to ‘declare any foreign country’ an aggressor state if the president determines that it is involved in acts of aggression against Ukraine,” the newspaper said.
According to the publication, the document may also allow Biden to impose sanctions against any person “responsible or involved” in the crime of aggression, as indicated in the document.
Ukrainian officials, in a conversation with the newspaper, admitted that the status of the “aggressor state” did not satisfy their requests, but stated that they supported the measure and could generally support the creation of a separate term if it provided additional tools to punish such parties.
As reminded, in the end of November, the coordinator for strategic communications of the White House National Security Council, John Kirby, said that the US would not recognize Russia as a “sponsor of terrorism,” otherwise it would tie the hands of the international community in finding ways to de-escalate the situation.
Ru-Main, 21.12.2022
Source: RIA Novosti
