Ukraine Designates IRGC as Terrorist Group, Following EU

Ukraine has officially designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced this last night.

He stressed that Ukraine stands with nations that value freedom and are prepared to defend it.

Zelensky drew the international community’s attention to events in Iran, particularly mass killings and the Iranian regime’s role in spreading war and violence across the region and the world.

“Ukraine will not forget a single one of the thousands of ‘Shahed’ drones that strike our cities and villages, our people,” the head of state stressed, referring to Iranian-made UAVs used by Russia against Ukraine.

The President pointed out that the EU has effectively already agreed on a decision to designate one of the key structures of the Iranian regime – the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) – as a terrorist organization, with the relevant procedures currently underway.

“We in Ukraine have already made this decision and have designated this organization as a terrorist, and for us, this issue is closed. All terrorists in the world deserve the same treatment and condemnation – none of them should prevail,” Zelensky added.

It is worth recalling that a unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was responsible for the downing of a Boeing 737 passenger aircraft belonging to Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) on January 8, 2020.

As a result of missiles fired from a Tor surface-to-air missile system, 176 people were killed.

In its justification, the Iranian side cited a “sharp, unexpected turn of the aircraft toward a military base,” which led Iranian forces to identify it as a “hostile target.”

Israel highly praised Ukraine’s decision regarding the IRGC.

“We highly appreciate the decision of Ukrainian President Zelensky to recognize the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization. This is an important diplomatic and moral decision: against terror. Against repression. For freedom,” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar wrote on X.