The US Senate, Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, as well as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian parliament unanimously support a resolution calling on the State Department to recognize Russia as a sponsor of terrorism, but US Secretary of State Antony Blinken himself is not so sure, the New York Times reported.

For several weeks, Mr. Blinken has been pushing to officially declare Russia a state sponsor of terrorism, which is currently assigned to North Korea, Syria, Cuba and Iran. However, despite his emotional charm, Blinken resists a transition that would force him to impose sanctions on US allies doing business with Russia and possibly destroy the remnants of diplomacy between Washington and Moscow.

The publication notes that on Thursday Blinken said that any choice should be based primarily on existing legislative definitions, but suggested that the lawmakers' call is moot, since Russia is already under many sanctions.

However, as the New York Times highlights, while the Senate decision was merely a call to action without any sanctioned pressure, a group of Democrats in the House of Representatives on Thursday introduced an entirely new measure that, if passed by Congress and signed into law, would bypass State Department and add Russia to the list of sponsors of terrorism in the United States.