Zelensky signs law strengthening process for creating, designating list of terrorist organizations

President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a bill on Jan. 7 strengthening the process for the formation and designation of groups and organizations to Ukraine’s terror list.

The law, which formally assigns responsibility to Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) to maintain a list of terrorist organizations, is set to better define and name organizations that pose a threat to the country’s national security. Ahead of the legislation, a designated terror list was managed informally through the country’s national security institutions.

The bill formally defines mechanism for a group’s inclusion into the list and will name terrorist networks that operate both within Ukraine and abroad — regardless of whether they’re a registered legal entity in Ukraine.

The list will be administered by the SBU’s Anti-Terrorism Center and will be publicly accessible through the government’s website.

The law mandates that political parties, regardless of their activities, not be included on the terror list.

Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Ukraine, along with a number of Western countries and institutions designated Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism.

Russian troops overrun Kurakhove, approach Pokrovsk east, south, and southwest

Russia keeps on advancing in eastern Donetsk Oblast, taking hold of Kurakhove, which would become the first major town to fall into Russian hands in 2025. Russian troops are continuing to push on the Lyman, Siversk, Kramatorsk, Toretsk, Pokrovsk and Kurakhove axes, Ukraine’s General Staff said in i…

The Kyiv IndependentKateryna Denisova