The democratic world must stop buying Russian oil and completely exclude Russian banks from the international financial system, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his daily video address early Thursday. read more “Some politicians are still unable to decide how to curb the flow of petrodollars and petroleum euros into Russia so as not to jeopardize their own economies,” Zelensky said. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Washington has announced new measures, including sanctions on President Vladimir Putin’s two adult daughters and a large bank. However, the European Union failed to approve a new round of sanctions, including on Russian coal, on Wednesday. Top EU diplomat Josep Borrell said the package could be put to a vote on Thursday or Friday. Speaking at a NATO meeting, Borrell also said the EU would discuss an embargo on Russian oil, which he said he hoped would come soon. After horrific images of dead civilians on the streets of Bukha, a city northeast of Kiev recaptured by Russian invaders, sparked international condemnation, Zelensky said Kremlin forces were trying to cover up atrocities. “We have information that the Russian military has changed its tactics and is trying to evacuate people killed from the streets and underground … this is just an attempt to hide the evidence and nothing more,” Zelensky said, but did not provide any evidence. Moscow has denied that it targeted civilians and says images of corpses in Bucha were directed to justify further sanctions against Moscow and to derail peace talks. read more Russia’s six-week invasion has forced more than 4 million people to flee abroad, killing or injuring thousands, leaving a quarter of the population homeless, turning cities into ruins and imposing Western restrictions on Russian elites and the economy. Washington’s new moves on Wednesday included sanctions on top state lender Sberbank (SBER.MM) and Alfa Bank, Russia’s fourth-largest financial institution. He also banned Americans from investing in Russia and called for Russia to be expelled from the G20 economies forum, saying it would boycott G20 meetings where Russian officials would appear. read more An EU source said the European coal ban would be approved on Thursday but would not take effect until August, a month later under pressure from Germany, the EU’s top Russian coal importer. more Britain also froze Sberbank’s assets and said it would ban imports of Russian coal, but not until the end of the year. The United Nations General Assembly will vote on Thursday to suspend Russia’s participation in the UN Human Rights Council. read more CALL FOR MORE ACTIONS But Ukraine says its allies need to go further to stop Moscow’s war machine by cutting off all energy imports from Russia and blocking supplies of technology and materials used to make weapons. “Sanctions against Russia must be catastrophic enough to end this terrible war,” Andriy Yermak, head of Ukraine’s presidential office, said late Wednesday. Ukraine’s foreign minister has called on NATO allies to send more planes, air defense systems, missiles and military vehicles. “I think the agreement offered by Ukraine is fair. You are giving us weapons, we are sacrificing our lives and the war is limited to Ukraine,” Dmitry Kuleba told reporters at a NATO meeting. In a rift with the rest of the EU, Hungary has said it is ready to meet Russia’s demand for rubles for its gas, in what Ukraine has described as an “unfriendly act”. The rift underscores the continent’s dependence on Russian gas and oil, which has prevented it from responding more harshly to the Kremlin, as Russia accounts for about 40 percent of the EU’s gas consumption and a third of its oil imports. POLICIZED CITY Western politicians have denounced the Bukha killings as war crimes, and Ukrainian officials say a mass grave from a church there contained between 150 and 300 bodies. Russia says it is engaged in a “special military operation” designed to demilitarize and “demilitarize” Ukraine, which Kyiv and its Western allies reject as a false pretext for its invasion. Russia continues to prepare for an attack to gain full control of the eastern breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, as well as the besieged southern port of Mariupol, where tens of thousands have been trapped, according to the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Many in the eastern city of Derhachi, just north of Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv, and near the border with Russia, decided to leave as much as they could. The buildings have been severely damaged by Russian artillery. Kharkov itself was hit by airstrikes and rockets from the beginning. Mykola, a father of two in Derhachi who declined to give his name, said he heard the bombings every night and ran with his family down the aisle of their house. “(We will go) where there are no explosions, where children will not need to hear them,” he said, hugging his young son and struggling to hold back tears. The Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine announced that 167 children have been killed so far in the war, with 297 wounded. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Additional reports from Reuters’s offices. Written by Costas Pitas, Lincoln Feast and Tomasz Janowski. Editing by Grant McCool, Jacqueline Wong, Michael Perry and Frank Jack Daniel Our role models: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
