“Exceptional work has been done” to impose the sanctions that have hit Russia so far. But “The invasion is not over yet, the annexation continues and the acts of terror are not over yet”. For this reason, the Yermak-McFaul group, sought after by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and co-led by his number two, the head of the office of the president Andriy Yermakand by former US Ambassador to Moscow Michael McFaul, calls on the West to strengthen measures to hit the Russian economy.

The group, made up of Ukrainian and international experts who advise on sanctions, released a report yesterday, September 29, explaining how Russia can now be defined as “a terrorist state” under US law and therefore calls for sanctions to be tightened. Yermak is urging the US, the European Union, Britain, Canada and Japan to double the scope of the measures, including the complete exclusion of Moscow from the international financial system. Under Washington law only North Korea, Syria, Iran and Cuba have been branded as “terrorist states” in the past. The essence of terrorism – reads the report – can be summed up as ‘premeditated violence against non-combatant targets’. Russia’s current actions in Ukraine ‘no doubt fit that definition.

To prove this point, the experts who drafted the report cite a number of “non-isolated” cases, including: testimony of rape, torture and other horrific human rights violations; the siege of Mariupol, “where the Russian government is responsible for a serious humanitarian crisis”, which it killed more than 22,000 civilians and destroyed 95 percent of the city; and the liberation of Izyum, which excavated “more than 400 unidentified graves of Ukrainian civilians”.

Then there’s the damage to infrastructure – “131 thousand housing units destroyed, along with 934 school facilities and 2,472 health facilities” – and the thousands (more than 30,000, according to the report) of war crimes committed by Muscovy soldiers. In the end 1.3 million Ukrainian citizens and children who were “abducted and brought to Russia” against their will. ”

The group therefore calls for the official designation of Russia as a “terrorist state”, not least because of the decision that the illegality of financial transactions with the government of Russia would imply for American persons and entities, the ban on the export and sale of weapons, the freezing properties, banks and companies owned by the Russian government and imposing sanctions on any country that continues to cooperate with Moscow.

“The impact of the sanctions imposed so far has not been decisive: it is often said that money is like water: it always finds a way to flow,” Yermak said. “The time has therefore come to increase Russia’s economic isolation as a necessary means to help end this conflict. If Russia wins this war, the security of the West and the rules-based international order it supports will be destroyed.» concluded Zelensky’s deputy.