US, Europe plan Russia sanctions as Ukraine warns of more civilian deaths
The United States plans new sanctions on Tuesday to punish Moscow over civilian killings.
US President Joe Biden called on Monday for a "war crimes trial" over alleged atrocities in Bucha and vowed tougher sanctions against Moscow, as Ukraine's leader urged the world to acknowledge a "genocide" by Russian troops near Kyiv.
Western leaders have united in outrage after dozens of bodies were found on the streets and in mass graves when Russian troops retreated from the devastated town near the capital, laying bare the horrors of a 40-day war that has killed thousands.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky warned more deaths were likely to be uncovered in areas seized from Russian invaders.
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Russian forces withdrew from towns north of the capital Kyiv last week as it turns its assault to Ukraine's south and east. Ukrainian troops recaptured towns devastated by nearly six weeks of war, including Bucha, where dead civilians lined the streets.
Searing images of a mass grave in Bucha and the bound bodies of people shot at close range drew an international outcry on Monday.
Russia denied any accusations related to the murder of civilians and said it would present "empirical evidence" to a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday proving its forces were not involved.
US President Joe Biden speaks during an event. File photo
In an early morning video address, Zelensky said he would also address the Security Council on Tuesday as he builds support for an investigation into the killings in Bucha.
"And this is only one town. One of many Ukrainian communities which the Russian forces managed to capture," Zelensky said. "Now, there is information that in Borodyanka and some other liberated Ukrainian towns, the number of casualties of the occupiers may be even much higher," he added, referring to a town 25 km (16 miles) west of Bucha.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said he spoke Monday with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres about events in Bucha in what appear to be deliberate killings in the town on the outskirts of the capital Kyiv.
"No place for Russia on the UN Human Rights Council,” Kuleba said on Twitter. "Ukraine will use all available UN mechanisms to collect evidence and hold Russian war criminals to account.”
Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba attends a meeting. File photo
Videos and photos of streets in Bucha strewn with corpses of what appeared to be civilians, some with their hands tied behind their back, have led to global revulsion, calls for tougher sanctions, and Russia’s suspension from the UN’s premiere human rights body, the Human Rights Council.
According to Ukraine’s prosecutor-general Iryna Venediktova, the bodies of 410 civilians have been removed from Kyiv-area towns that were recently retaken from Russian forces.
Associated Press journalists have reported seeing the bodies of at least 21 people in various spots around Bucha, northwest of the capital.
In Mariupol, a southeastern town on the Azov Sea that has been under siege for weeks, Reuters images showed three bodies in civilian clothes lying in the street, one against a wall sprayed with blood.
A team from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was stopped during an attempt to reach Mariupol to evacuate civilians, and is now being held in a nearby town, a spokesperson said on Monday.
West of Mariupol, in the town of Mykolaiv, shelling on Monday killed 10 people, including a child, and injured 46 others, regional administration head Oleksandr Senkevich said. Reuters was not immediately able to verify the report.
