Congressional leadership is working on the rapid introduction of a bill condemning Russia as an "Aggressor State." Still, they do not aim at designating Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism.

According to the American outlet The Hill, the designation would provide President Biden new sanctions authorities to target Russian officials. However, a House GOP aide called it a "half-baked" response to Zelenskyy's demand that the US designate Russia a state sponsor of terrorism.

The state sponsor of terrorism label would isolate Moscow internationally and compel the US to impose costs on countries engaging with the Kremlin.

The Biden administration has rejected that effort, saying it would tie the hands of the US in engaging with Russia generally and box in the administration on any diplomatic efforts to end Russia's war against Ukraine.

"We're working with Congress right now on legislation that would help us get around some of the challenges of using the state sponsor of terrorism designation, which has some unintended consequences," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in an interview with CNN earlier this month.

Assistants of Republican congressmen said that the draft text was being negotiated between the administration and congressional leadership.

"Zelenskyy asked for the State Sponsor of Terror designation, and instead, the Biden Administration has told them it won't support it, but have concocted an alternative designation that doesn't even exist under US domestic or international law — there is no legal basis for it. It's a half-baked PR measure that won't do anything to punish Russia, nor help the Ukrainian people," a congressional aide familiar with negotiations told The Hill.

A version of the draft text, obtained exclusively by The Hill, says that the president, upon enactment of the measure, can designate Russia an "Aggressor State" and has the power to "designate any foreign country" as an aggressor state if the president determines it is engaged in acts of aggression against Ukraine.

Belarus has also been subject to broad sanctions for supporting Russia's war, and a visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin this week raised fears that Belarus could also send troops to Ukraine.

The draft text allows for the president to sanction any individual who is "responsible for, engaged in or complicit in" the crime of aggression as laid out in the bill.

But critics of the text say that those sanctions authorities are redundant, as the Biden administration has sanctioned Putin and many of his top officials and family members since Moscow launched its invasion against Ukraine in February.

American public organisations that support Ukraine issued a joint statement objecting to the aggressor state legislation. The statement was signed by the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, Joint Baltic American National Committee and Razom for Ukraine.

Republicans also claim that the draft text on the aggressor state is rhetorically weaker than attempts to condemn Russia for the genocide in Ukraine. Senators introduced a resolution in July recognising Russia's actions in Ukraine as genocide.

Ukrainian officials acknowledged to The Hill that the aggressor state status does not fulfill their requests for labeling Russia as a terrorist state but are supportive of the measure as a way to describe Russia as carrying out acts of terrorism and can generally support coining a separate term if it provides additional instruments to punish aggressor states.

On November 23, the European Parliament recognised Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism and as a state that "uses means of terrorism."

On November 21, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly recognised the Russian Federation and its regime as a terrorist state.