Images of Russian Atrocities Push West Toward Tougher Sanctions

Images of dead Ukrainians, some with their hands tied and others buried in pits, shocked Western leaders on Monday by promising tougher sanctions against Russia, including in energy, as the Kremlin digs deep and shows signs of preparing a new offensive.

There is growing evidence that Russian soldiers the number of civilians killed in the Bucha suburb of Kyiv, leaving their bodies behind as they withdrew, prompting President Biden to call on President Vladimir V. Putin to face a “war crimes trial”. Germany and France expelled a total of 75 Russian diplomats, and President Emmanuel Macron of France said the European Union should consider sanctions on Russian coal and oil.

“This guy is brutal,” Biden said of Putin. “And what is happening in Bucha is amazing, and people have seen it.”

In Moscow on Monday, Mr. Putin said nothing about his war in Ukraine, but his spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, said the Kremlin “unequivocally” denied “any allegations” of the Russia’s participation in atrocities. Instead, Russia’s state-run media outlets have published incessantly conspiracy theories about what they say are Ukrainian fabrications, while authorities threaten to prosecute anyone who openly blames people. Russia on the Bucha murders.

Russia said the bodies were only recently laid on the streets after “all Russian units had completely withdrawn from Bucha” around March 30. But a review of videos and satellite images of the New York Times showed that more civilians were killed than 3 people. a few weeks ago, when the Russian army took control of the town.

The war in Ukraine may now be entering an even more dangerous phase, despite Russia’s withdrawal from areas near Kyiv last week.

Ukrainian and Western officials say Russia appears to be deploying troops for an intensified offensive in the eastern Donbas region, where the port city of Mariupol is still under brutal siege. And in Kharkiv, about 30 miles from the Russian border, relentless shelling has rendered parts of the city of 1.4 million unrecognizable.

Systematic destruction produces little military benefit, but is part of the broader strategy to capture the east of the countryanalysts and US military officials said.

With the Russian economy showing some signs of recovery from the initial shock of broad-based Western sanctions imposed following Putin’s invasion in February, the Kremlin appears to be on the mend. move for the continuation of the war, despite talks in the capitals of Europe. could now ban coal, oil or, less likely, Russian gas.

“They will not stop,” Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said in a statement Monday. “Putin’s orders to his soldiers to destroy our state have not gone away.”

During a visit to Bucha on Monday, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine left the door open for a negotiated peace, despite the horrific scenes unfolding over the weekend. Dressed in a camouflage vest, surrounded by soldiers and journalists, Mr Zelensky accused Russia of “genocide”, but said he still hoped to meet Mr. Putin to find a way to prevent war.

“Ukraine must have peace,” Zelensky said. “We are in Europe in the 21st century. We will continue our efforts diplomatically and militarily.”

Mr. Biden, speaking to reporters in Washington after returning from Delaware, said “information” needed to be gathered to try Putin, and called the Russian leader a “war criminal”. Mr. Biden said at some point he would announce more sanctions against Russia, without specifying what they would be.

In Europe, growing evidence of Russian atrocities also seems to pave the way for more sanctions, even as EU members remain divided over whether to impose a ban. widely for Russian energy imports.

Macron, the French president, told France Inter radio: “Today there are very clear signs of war crimes. “Those responsible for those crimes will have to answer them.”

European Union ambassadors will meet on Wednesday to discuss another package of sanctions against Russia, but the extent of the new measures remains vastly different, diplomats and officials said. . A meeting of NATO defense ministers is also scheduled for that day.

Since the beginning of the conflict, European leaders, along with the United States, have pursued a strategy of imposing sanctions one piece at a time, gradually toughening them up so they have more cards in the event Russia creeps in. conflict ladder.

But outrage at new revelations of atrocities could force them to take action.

EU officials say a version of the new EU sanctions package under consideration could include a ban on Russian coal, but not oil and gas. European diplomats and officials say bans on Russian goods entering EU ports are also being considered, as well as smaller measures to close the loophole in existing sanctions.

While Mr. Macron said the new sanctions should target both coal and oil, German Finance Minister Christian Lindner indicated that coal would be the only Russian energy export included in the sanctions package. The European Union needs to “distinguish between oil, coal and gas,” he said.

Coal, largely mined by private companies in Russia, is less important to the Kremlin’s coffers than the oil and gas industry, in which state-owned companies play a leading role.

Germany has been the key country to prevent the bloc from escaping an outright ban on oil and gas, although the idea is also unpopular among smaller European nations, which rely heavily on Russian supplies. Berlin has always argued that sanctions against Russia must hurt Russia more than they hurt Europe.

Germany’s reluctance to endorse oil and gas sanctions was evident on Sunday, as rifts appeared in the coalition government’s position on such a move.

Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said the bloc should consider bans on gas imports, while Economy and Energy Secretary Robert Habeck said such a move would not be helpful as Mr. fight”.

“The terrible news from Bucha will certainly put more pressure on the EU to impose energy sanctions on Moscow this Wednesday, but oil and gas import bans are unlikely. at the moment,” said Mujtaba Rahman, managing director for Europe at Eurasia Group. , a consulting firm.

“Internal momentum is building after the cessation of Russian coal production,” said Mr. Rahman. “If anything happens, it could be the first thing Brussels targets in terms of energy. ”

Mr. Rahman said that, currently, economic and political costs The sudden cessation of Russian oil and gas imports is too high for most EU leaders. He said Russia’s use of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons in Ukraine could lead to the EU imposing sanctions on oil and gas imports.

However, Bucha’s revelations prompted Germany and France – two countries that have long been careful to avoid provoking Russia – to escalate their confrontation with Moscow.

Germany said it would expel 40 Russian diplomats, an unusually high number for a single round of expulsions that Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said was necessary because of the “astonishing brutality of the Russian leadership and who follow the propaganda of this country.”

France also said it would expel “many” Russian diplomats based in the country; A State Department official put the number at 35.

And Lithuania expelled the Russian ambassador and recalled its ambassador from Moscow, the first time a European country has taken such action since the start of the war.

Russia has promised to retaliate against the expulsions and has denied reports of atrocities in Bucha, describing them as fabricated rumors in order to get more sanctions. State TV even declare that Western agents chose Bucha for their “provocation” because the town’s name sounds like the English word “butcher.”

This is the latest instance in which the Kremlin’s media apparatus has attempted to present overwhelming evidence of Russia’s involvement in a brutality with a flood of people. conspiracy theories sowing trouble among ordinary consumers of news.

It seems that inside Russia, the approach will work. The Kremlin story is increasingly becoming the only story heard by regular Russians, with independent news media shutting down, access to Facebook and Instagram blocked, and censorship laws. just punished any deviation from that story with a sentence of 15 years in prison.

The Russian prosecutor general’s office released a statement on Monday indicating that anyone who referred to Bucha’s atrocities as acts of Russia was at risk of prosecution.

Anton Troianovski reported from Istanbul, and Matina Stevis-Gridneff from Brussels. Report contributed by Thomas Gibbons-Nefffrom Kharkiv; Megan Specia from Krakow, Poland; Méheut remains unchanged and Aurelien Breeden from Paris; Christopher F. Schuetze from Berlin; and Katie Rogers from Washington.