President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has described the atrocities in his country as “war crimes”, with Ukrainian authorities saying more than 4,400 cases are being investigated. “Russia will be responsible for Bucharest in The Hague,” Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Irina Venediktova said in a statement. Western sanctions on Russia over its nearly six-week invasion of its neighbor gained new momentum this week after the bodies of civilians were shot at close range in the city of Bukha after Russian forces withdrew. Russia has denied the allegations in a statement issued Friday stating “Similar, baseless allegations concerning Russia have been made more than once. However, satellite images show that corpses were found on the streets of Bukha for days before Russian troops left the city. The White House said the sanctions, which will be unveiled on Wednesday, were partly a response to Bucha. The measures, coordinated between Washington, the G7 economies and the European Union, will target Russian banks and officials and ban new investment in Russia. “The goal is to make them make a choice,” said Jen Psaki, a White House spokeswoman. “Most of our goal here is to deplete the resources that Putin has to continue the war against Ukraine.” Psaki declined to comment to Wall Street Journal reports that the sanctions would target Putin’s two daughters. The proposed EU sanctions, which must be approved by the bloc’s 27 member states, would ban the purchase of Russian coal and prevent Russian ships from entering EU ports. bloc is also working to ban oil imports. Europe, which supplies about a third of its gas from Russia, was wary of the economic consequences of a complete ban on Russian energy. However, signaling the strengthening of the EU determination, the German Foreign Minister said that the carbon ban was the first step towards an embargo on all Russian imports of fossil fuels. The new pressure from the West comes after Zelensky gave the UN Security Council a painful description of the atrocities in his country and demanded that Russian leaders be brought to justice for war crimes. A day after US President Joe Biden called for Putin to be held accountable, Zelensky said there should be an international tribunal similar to the Nuremberg Nazi trials after World War II. There has been a worldwide outcry over apparently deliberate killings of civilians by Russian troops in Ukraine. Zelensky visited Butsa on Monday after officials said the bodies of 410 civilians had been retrieved from cities in the Kiev region. Officials said up to 300 people could be buried in a mass grave in Butsa. “There is not a single crime they did not commit there,” Zelensky said via video link and an interpreter. “The Russians deliberately sought out and killed anyone who served our country. They shot and killed women outside their homes. “They killed entire families – adults and children – and tried to burn the bodies.” Zelensky spoke of citizens who were “shot and killed in the back of the head after being tortured. Some of them were shot in the streets. others were thrown into the wells. “So they died there suffering.” He added: “Citizens were overwhelmed by tanks while sitting in their cars in the middle of the street just for their pleasure.” The president explained the alleged barbarity of the Russian forces. “They cut limbs, cut their throats, women were raped and killed in front of their children. “Their language came out only because the attacker did not hear what they wanted to hear.” This did not differ, he said, from the behavior of the Islamic State, the terrorist group that is notorious for its acts of cruelty in Iraq and Syria, but in this case the perpetrator was Russia, a member of the UN Security Council. He urged the council to keep his name. “It is clear that the basic institution of the world, which is to ensure the coercion of anyone who attacks peace, simply cannot function effectively.” Zelensky also said that Buca was “just one of many examples of what the conquerors have done to our land in the last 41 days” and that there was much more that the world had not yet learned the full truth about. He accused Russia of behaving like an ancient settler who kidnapped children and looted wealth, including gold earrings that were broken by civilians. “Russia wants to turn Ukraine into a silent slave,” he said. Speaking before heading to Brussels for meetings of NATO and G7 foreign ministers, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said: “What we saw in Bucha is not an accidental act of a rogue unit. It is a deliberate campaign to kill, to torture, to rape, to commit atrocities. The reports are more than reliable. The data is there for the world to see. “This strengthens our determination and the determination of countries around the world to ensure that one way or another, one day or another, there is responsibility for those who committed these acts, for those who ordered them.” Peshkov said Biden’s remarks Monday, calling Putin a “war criminal” and calling for a “war crimes trial” were unacceptable and unworthy of a US president. Map of Ukraine In other developments:
The United States has agreed to provide an additional $ 100 million in aid to Ukraine, including Javelin anti-terrorism systems, the Pentagon said on Tuesday. Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv, was among Russia’s main targets, the general staff said, adding that Ukrainian forces had destroyed three Russian tanks and about 20 other armored vehicles. U.S. Army Chief of Staff Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has suggested that the conflict extend beyond Ukraine and continue for “at least” years.
