Sanctions on Wednesday will target officials and their families – with reports suggesting that Vladimir Putin’s daughters Maria Vorontsova, 36, and Katerina Tikhonova, 35, will be hit by US and EU measures – as well as Russian banks and state-owned companies. White The house has indicated. The proposed EU sanctions will ban the purchase of Russian coal, prevent Russian ships from entering EU ports and suspend trade worth almost € 20 billion (16 16 billion). In London, a Foreign Ministry source said that announcements would also come from the United Kingdom. It comes after reports of civilians being shot at close range, some with their hands tied behind their backs, lying on the streets of Bucha north of Kiev after Russian forces withdrew from the city. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian troops had committed “the most heinous war crimes” since World War II, claiming that innocent people had been cold-bloodedly shot in their homes or on the street and crushed in their cars by tanks. women had been raped. Foreign Minister Liz Truss said the economic action so far had had a “catastrophic impact” and was “pushing the Russian economy back to the Soviet era”. He said sanctions had frozen more than $ 350 billion (26 266 billion) of Putin’s “war chest”, rendering more than 60 percent of the regime’s $ 604 billion ($ 459 billion) foreign exchange reserves unavailable. It will meet with its NATO counterparts in Brussels on Wednesday ahead of a full meeting of the alliance’s foreign ministers on Thursday. Serhii Lahovskyi, 26, hugs Ludmyla Verginska, 51, as they mourn their friend Ihor Lytvynenko, who residents say was killed by Russian soldiers in Bucha. (Zohra Bensemra / Reuters) The meeting took place as the British defense services warned of a humanitarian catastrophe in the Ukrainian port of Mariupol, which has been besieged and bombed by Russian forces. The Ministry of Defense said the humanitarian situation in the city continued to deteriorate, with more than 160,000 remaining residents left without electricity, communications, medicine, heating or water. Health Minister Sajid Javid said that a picture of a Ukrainian mother engraving the details on the back of her two-year-old daughter in case she and the rest of the family were killed in the conflict “strengthens the determination of us all”. Boris Johnson made a direct appeal to the Russian people to reject Putin’s war in Ukraine, which he described as a “stain” on their country’s honor. In a video, the prime minister urged Russians to download a VPN so they could bypass Kremlin media checks and see for themselves the atrocities committed in their name. Ukrainian soldiers celebrate at a checkpoint in Bukha (Rodrigo Abd / AP) Speaking in Russian, Mr Johnson told Russia: “Your president is accused of committing war crimes. “But I can not believe he is acting in your name.” He intervened after Zelensky used a dramatic speech at the UN Security Council to call for the creation of a special tribunal, according to the Nuremberg tribunals, which used to try to bring the Nazis to justice. The Kremlin responded by claiming that the images of civilians allegedly killed by Russian soldiers in Bhutan were “fake news” organized by the Ukrainians themselves. However, the UK Department of Defense said analysis of satellite images from March 21 – when the city was still under Russian occupation – showed at least eight bodies on a street. In his message, Mr Johnson said the “atrocities” committed by Russian forces – including the rape and massacre of innocent civilians – were so shocking that Putin had deliberately tried to hide the truth from his people. “Your president knows that if you could see what was happening, you would not support his war,” he said. “She knows that these crimes betray the trust of every Russian mother who proudly bids farewell to her son as he goes to join the army. “It simply came to our notice then. “A stain that will become more and more indelible every day that this war continues.” The Independent has a proud campaign history for the rights of the most vulnerable and we first launched our “Welcome Refugees” campaign during the war in Syria in 2015. Now, as we renew our campaign and start this report on In the wake of the unfolding Ukrainian crisis, we call on the government to move faster and faster to secure aid. To learn more about our Refugee Campaign, click here. To sign the application click here. If you would like to donate, click here for our GoFundMe page. Additional report from the Press Association
