US President Joe Biden has called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “war criminal” and said he will demand a war crimes trial as global outrage over allegations of civilian killings by Russian soldiers in the Ukraine city of Bucha continue to assemble. “We need to collect the information. We must continue to provide Ukraine with the weapons it needs to continue fighting and we must know all the details [to] have a war crimes trial. This guy is brutal and what is happening in Bucha is outrageous,” he said on Monday.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU is ready to send investigative teams to Ukraine to document alleged Russian war crimes and crimes against humanity. She said she spoke President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy about the “horrific murders” uncovered over the weekend.
Wearing protective vests and surrounded by military personnel, Zelenskyy visited Bucha, some 45 km northwest of Kyiv, on Monday. He spoke of death and destruction in the recently liberated towns of Stoyanka, Irpin and Bucha. “The cities are just ruined,” he said, adding that the authorities had launched an investigation into possible war crimes. Zelenskyj said there were indications of this More than 300 people were killed and tortured in Bucha alone.
The Ukrainian president turned to Western leaders and criticized what he described as delaying action against Russia. “Did hundreds of our people really have to die in agony for some European leaders to finally understand that the Russian state deserves the heaviest pressure?” he asked. Referring to military aid, he said, “If we had already gotten what we needed… we could have saved thousands of people.”
Zelenskyy will address the United Nations Security Council on Tuesdayafter saying it was in Kyiv’s interest to conduct an open investigation into the killing of civilians in Ukraine.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said evidence of civilian killings in Bucha was just the “tip of the iceberg”. At a joint press conference with British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, he said: tThe “Greys of Bucha, Mariupol and other places” are demanding “heavy G7 and EU sanctions”.
The bodies of five civilians, including the mayor, were found with their hands tied in the village of Motyzhyn, 45 km west of Kyiv, said the Ukrainian authorities. Mayor Olga Sucheko, her husband and son were kidnapped by Russian troops on March 24, police said. “They tortured and murdered the village head’s whole family,” said Anton Herashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s Interior Ministry.
Prosecutor General of Ukraine Iryna Venediktova said the city of Borodyanka would be hardest hit by the Russian invasion of the Kyiv region. Speaking on national television, Venediktova said the number of victims in Borodyanka, about 23 km west of Bucha, would be higher than anywhere else but gave no further details.
Zelenskyy said the country was preparing for “even more brutal action” by Russian forces in eastern and southern Ukraine. “We know what they will do in the Donbas,” he said. Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk said Russia was attacking the cities of Russia Rubishne and Popasna in the eastern Luhansk region, while preparing an attack on the city Severodonetsk and are working to capture Mariupol.
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan appeared to back up the claims, saying: “Russia is repositioning its forces to focus its offensive operations on eastern and parts of southern Ukraine‘ and this new phase of the Russian invasion ‘could be measured in months or more’.
The Red Cross said a team dispatched to help evacuate civilians from Mariupol is being held by police Territory controlled by Russia. The team was stopped Monday while conducting humanitarian efforts to create a safe passage corridor for civilians and “is being held in the city.” Mangush20km west of Mariupol,” ICRC spokeswoman Caitlin Kelly told AFP.
Russia has backed a new, self-proclaimed mayor of Mariupol who is working with Russian forcesreported Reuters.
Washington is working on further economic sanctions against Russia is set to be announced this week, Sullivan said, adding that “options related to” the country’s lucrative energy industry are on the table.
British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said she would work with allies to ban Russian ships from western portscrack down on Russian banks and agree to “a clear timeline to eliminate our imports of Russian oil, gas and coal.”
The US will demand Russia’s removal from the UN Human Rights Council. During a visit to Romania, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the United Nations, urged the international organization to suspend Russia.
The head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Andriy Yermak, said a “very big historical mistake” was made when “certain allied countries and certain leaders started a game with Russia” 14 years ago at the NATO summit in Bucharest, according to comments published on the website of Ukraine’s Presidential Office.