The U.S. Congress is considering the possibility of finding a new category for the status of Russia, calling it an "aggressor state," "terrorist state" or "aggressor state that commits terrorist acts against civilians," Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States Oksana Markarova has said.

As Markarova explained in an interview with Suspilne, there is a status called the state sponsor of terrorism, which includes four countries: North Korea, Syria, Cuba and Iran, and Ukraine has been negotiating with colleagues and partners for quite a long time about what Russia needs add to this list.

"So that on the one hand we call Russia correctly, and on the other, some restrictions are included that allow us to further restrict Russia. Surely, we understand that it is not a sponsor of terrorism. This status was once invented specifically for countries who provide assistance to terrorist organizations on their or other territory. Russia is itself a terrorist, the country that has a regular army, a government, an elected president, they are all war criminals. They are all officially engaged in aggression and terrorism," the ambassador said.

Markarova said the first question is "what will we call Russia, and the second question is what will stand behind this name."

She also said one of the alternative options that was discussed, but which has not yet been adopted, is to find a separate category for Russia and adopt a new law in Congress, calling it an aggressor state, or a terrorist state, or an aggressor state that carries out terrorist acts against the civilian population.

"This is now in active discussion... For us, this is a key priority for 2023," the ambassador said.