European Parliament declares Russia 'state sponsor of terrorism' over its attack on Ukraine

The European Parliament has declared Russia 'state sponsor of terrorism' over its war on Ukraine, reported AFP, and urged the 27-nation EU to look to follow suit. "The deliberate attacks and atrocities carried out by the Russian Federation against the civilian population of Ukraine, the destruction of civilian infrastructure and other serious violation of human rights and international humanitarian law amounts to acts of terror," the AFP quoted the European Parliament as stating. 

In a lopsided 494-58 vote with 48 abstentions, the EU legislature sought to increase pressure on Moscow to bring anyone responsible for war crimes committed from the February 24 start of the invasion before an international court. The 27-nation EU has condemned in the harshest terms the invasion and repeatedly said that several Russian actions over the past 10 months have amounted to war crimes.

Ukraine's cities under attack

Earlier on Wednesday, an overnight rocket attack destroyed a hospital maternity ward in southern Ukraine, killing a 2-day-old baby, Ukrainian authorities said. Ukraine's first lady said the attack caused "horrible pain", vowing that "we will never forget and never forgive."

Multiple explosions were heard in Kyiv Wednesday after air raid sirens sounded in Ukraine's capital and elsewhere across the country. The thunderous echoes of what sounded like repeated blasts rattled across the capital. Mayor Vitali Klitschko posted on Telegram that "one of the capital's infrastructures facilities has been hit." He urged people to "Stay in shelters! The air alert continues." Klitschko didn't give further details, and there was no further information on whether and what targets may have been hit. Russia has been repeatedly pounding Ukraine's wartime capital and power facilities across the country in recent weeks, causing widespread blackouts.

Pope links suffering of Ukrainians to 1930s 'genocide artificially caused by Stalin'

Meanwhile, Pope Francis on Wednesday (November 23) linked the suffering of Ukrainians now to the 1930s "genocide artificially caused by Stalin," when the Soviet leader was blamed for creating a man-made famine in the country believed to have killed more than 3 million people. Francis' linking of the plight of Ukrainian civilians today to those killed by starvation 90 years ago, and his willingness to call it a "genocide" and squarely blame Josef Stalin, marked a sharp escalation in papal rhetoric against Russia. As of this year, only 17 countries have officially recognised the famine, known as the Holodomor, according to the Holodomor Museum in Kyiv.