US President Joe Biden has called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “war criminal” and said he would call for a war crimes trial as global outrage over allegations of civilian killings of Russian soldiers in the Ukrainian city of Bucha continues to grow. “We need to gather information. We must continue to provide Ukraine with the weapons it needs to continue fighting, and we must get all the details. [to] to have a war crimes trial. “This man is brutal and what is happening in Bucha is scandalous,” he said on Monday.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU was ready to send investigative teams to Ukraine to document alleged Russian war crimes and crimes against humanity. She said she had spoken to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky about the “horrific killings” that were uncovered over the weekend.
Zelensky visited Bucha, about 45km northwest of Kyiv, dressed in armor and surrounded by the military on Monday. He spoke of death and destruction in the recently liberated towns of Stoyanka, Irpen and Bucha. “Cities have simply been destroyed,” he said, adding that authorities had launched an investigation into possible war crimes. Zelenski said there was information suggesting that more than 300 people had been killed and tortured in Bucha alone.
The Ukrainian president addressed Western leaders, criticizing what he described as delayed action against Russia. “Did hundreds of our people really have to die in agony so that some European leaders could finally understand that the Russian state deserves the heaviest pressure?” he asked. Referring to military aid, he said: “If we had already got what we needed … we could have saved thousands of people.”
Zelensky will address the UN Security Council on Tuesday, saying it was in Kyiv’s interest to have an open investigation into the killings of civilians in Ukraine.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the evidence of civilian killings in Bucha was just the tip of the iceberg. Speaking at a joint news conference with UK Foreign Minister Liz Truss, he said “the horrors of Bucha, Mariupol and elsewhere” require “serious sanctions on the G7 and the EU”.
The bodies of five civilians, including the mayor, were found tied up in the village of Motizhyn, 45km west of Kyiv, Ukrainian authorities said. Mayor Olga Sukhenko, her husband and son were abducted by Russian troops on March 24, police said. “They tortured and killed the whole family at the head of the village,” said Anton Herashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior ministry.
Ukraine’s chief prosecutor, Irina Venediktov, said the town of Borodyanka would be hardest hit by Russia’s invasion of the Kyiv region. Speaking on national television, Venediktov said the death toll in Borodyanka, about 23km west of Bucha, would be higher than anywhere else, but did not provide further details.
Zelensky said the country was preparing for “even more brutal activity” by Russian forces in eastern and southern Ukraine. “We know what they will do in Donbass,” he said. Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesman Alexander Motuzyanik said Russia was attacking the cities of Rubezhnoye and Popasna in the eastern Luhansk region, while preparing an attack on the city of Severodonetsk and working to capture Mariupol.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan seems to confirm the allegations, saying that “Russia is repositioning its forces to focus its offensive operations in eastern and parts of southern Ukraine” and that this new phase of the Russian invasion “can be measured in months or months.” more “.
The Red Cross says a team sent to help evacuate civilians from Mariupol has been detained by police in Russian-controlled territory. The team was stopped on Monday as it made humanitarian efforts to help run a corridor for the safe passage of civilians and “stayed in the town of Mangush, 20km west of Mariupol,” ICRC spokeswoman Caitlin Kelly told AFP.
Russia has backed a new, self-proclaimed mayor of Mariupol who is cooperating with Russian forces, Reuters reported.
Washington is working on more economic sanctions against Russia, which will be announced this week, Sullivan said, adding that there are “options that are related” to the country’s lucrative energy industry.
UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said she would work with allies to ban Russian ships from Western ports, crack down on Russian banks and agree on a “clear timetable for eliminating our imports of Russian oil and gas.” and coal. “
The United States will demand the removal of Russia from the UN Human Rights Council. During a visit to Romania, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the United Nations, called on the international organization to stop Russia.
The head of the office of Ukrainian President Andriy Ermak said that “a very big historical mistake” was made when “specific allies and specific leaders started a game with Russia” 14 years ago at the NATO summit in Bucharest, according to comments published on site of the Presidential Office of Ukraine.
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