Ukraine war: US, allies impose new Russia sanctions after Bucha massacre; Boris Johnson calls it ‘genocide’
- Western countries have banned investments in Russia and sanctioned more Russian elites, including Vladimir Putin’s two adult children
- It is the first time the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has used the word ‘genocide’ with regards to Ukraine
“I’m afraid when you look at what’s happening in Bucha, the revelations that we are seeing from what (Vladimir) Putin has done in Ukraine does not look far short of genocide to me,” Johnson told reporters on Wednesday.
“It is no wonder people are responding in the way that they are,” he added. “I have no doubt that the international community, Britain very much in the front rank, will be moving again in lockstep to impose more sanctions and more penalties on Vladimir Putin’s regime.”
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German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Wednesday condemned what he called “war crimes” committed by Russian forces, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Putin’s ambition to occupy all of his country was undiminished.
“The four packages of sanctions have hit hard and limited the Kremlin’s political and economic options. We are seeing tangible results,” she added. “But clearly, in view of events, we need to increase our pressure further.”
04:08
Bucha residents mourn hundreds of Ukrainians killed as Russia accused of war crimes over invasion
Moscow has denied that it was responsible for the Bucha killings, calling them forgeries orchestrated by Ukraine and sympathetic Western countries.
“It is a simply a well-directed - but tragic - show,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday. “It is a forgery aimed at denigrating the Russian army - and it will not work.”
Nonetheless, the EU said it would stop all Russian coal imports, worth about €4 billion (US$4.4 billion) annually, ban Russian ships from European ports and institute a further €10 billion in export bans to Russia, including advanced semiconductors and transport equipment.
Europe continues to remain reliant on Russian oil and gas, importing about a third of its natural gas from Russia. Ukraine has said a ban on Russian gas is necessary to securing an end to the war, but cutting off Russian oil is particularly difficult for Germany, one of Europe’s largest economies.
On Wednesday, Zelensky condemned hesitancy in Europe over barring Russian energy imports, arguing that some leaders were more worried about business losses than about war crimes.
New “rhetoric” about sanctions had emerged, he told the Irish parliament, “but I cannot tolerate any indecisiveness after everything we have gone through in Ukraine and everything that Russian troops have done”.
US and allies to pile more Ukraine sanctions on Russia, ban new investments
“We still need to convince Europe that Russian oil cannot feed the Russian military machine with new sources of funding,” Zelensky added, calling also for the total exclusion of Russian banks from Western finance.
“The only thing we are lacking is the principled approach of some leaders – political leaders, business leaders – who still think that war and war crimes are not as horrific as financial losses,” he said, speaking through an interpreter.
On Wednesday, Britain also announced its fifth round of sanctions, including a ban on imports of iron and steel products, and asset freezes on eight oligarchs involved in key Russian strategic industries.
Britain also said it would end all imports of Russian coal by the end of this year, after previously pledging to end all imports of Russian oil this year. Russia accounts for about 8 per cent of all oil imported in Britain.
As part of the sanctions announced by the White House and its allies on Wednesday, US citizens will be prohibited from engaging in transactions with a group of “critical major Russian state-owned enterprises”, which will be announced by the US Treasury Department on Thursday.
Russia also will be prohibited from making debt payments with funds subject to US jurisdiction, the White House said. Those sanctions, however, do not preclude the paying of sovereign debt as long as Russia uses funds outside US jurisdiction.
“Russia is a global financial pariah – and it will now need to choose between draining its available funds to make debt payments or default,” the White House said.
02:51
Putin tells ‘unfriendly’ nations to pay in roubles for Russian gas as economic sanctions bite
On Tuesday, the US agreed to provide an additional US$100 million in help to Ukraine, including Javelin anti-armour systems, the Pentagon said. US chip maker Intel Corp also said it had suspended business operations in Russia, joining a growing list of companies leaving the country.
Meanwhile, Russia says it wants to maintain diplomatic relations with Western countries despite a series of expulsions of its diplomats, the Interfax news agency cited Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko as saying.
Grushko said European countries disrupting the work of Russian diplomats were damaging their own interests.
Additional reporting by Reuters and Agence France-Presse
