An assembly of representatives drawn from 46 national parliaments across Europe voted overwhelmingly in favor on Thursday for a resolution calling on European countries to “declare the current Russian regime as a terrorist one.”
A total of 99 out of 100 members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) voted in support of the resolution. Only a Turkish MP from the Republican People’s Party abstained.
“The continued use of long-range artillery by the Russian military to hit towns and cities across Ukraine has caused massive destruction and death,” the resolution said. “With these indiscriminate attacks, Russia aims to advance its terrorist policy to suppress the will of Ukrainians to resist and defend their country and provoke maximum harm to civilians.”
The resolution called on Russia to “completely and unconditionally withdraw its occupying forces.”
PACE is a parliamentary body of the Council of Europe, an international organization separate from the European Union. It has a broader membership, including countries like Turkey, Ukraine and the United Kingdom, as well as transcontinental countries such as Azerbaijan. PACE consists of national parliamentarians drawn from its member nations.
