EU lawmakers to call Russia a ‘rogue state’ at emergency session with Zelenskyy

EU lawmakers will call Russia a “rogue state” and urge the 27-nation bloc to agree even tougher sanctions, in an emergency debate on the war on Tuesday during which Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will address lawmakers via video-link.

The European Union has taken unprecedented steps after Russia’s President Vladimir Putin launched war on neighboring Ukraine last week.

The bloc’s measures include deciding to jointly finance weapons deliveries to a third country for the first time to help Ukraine fend off the Russian invasion.

According to a draft resolution backed by the assembly’s main parties, lawmakers will call for the scope of sanctions to be broadened and “aimed at strategically weakening the Russian economy and industrial base, in particular the military-industrial complex.”

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “effectively makes Russia a rogue state,” the lawmakers are set to say.

While Russian President Vladimir Putin “recalls the most dreadful statements of 20th century dictators,” Zelenskyy, who will address the EU parliament at around 1130 GMT, is being “heroic,” the draft of the non-binding resolution said.

The European Parliament will also urge EU leaders to be tougher on oligarchs and officials close to the Russian leadership, restrict oil and gas imports from Russia, ban Russia and its ally Belarus entirely from the SWIFT bank messaging system, and for all EU ports to be closed to Russian ships or ships headed to or from Russia.

The debate, usually translated in the EU’s official languages, will also be translated in Ukrainian and Russian, the European Parliament said.

Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a “special operation.” [Reuters]