Ukraine on Sunday demanded crippling new sanctions on Russia from major Western powers over a “massacre” in a town near Kyiv as anger grew in Western capitals and Germany said that those responsible for war crimes should pay.Ukraine said on Saturday that its forces had retaken all areas around Kyiv.
The mayor of Bucha, a liberated town 37 km (23 miles) northwest of the capital, said that 300 of its residents had been killed by the Russian army.Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called for international war crimes investigators to visit the area to collect evidence and said Kyiv believed the killing of civilians was deliberate.
Ukraine decries alleged atrocities by Russian troops in Bucha: ‘Horror movie’ Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday that the West would impose a new package of sanctions on Russia over the killing of civilians in Bucha and other Ukrainian cities, but he said that was not enough of a punishment.He said that hundreds of people had been killed in Bucha and other cities, including civilians who had been shot.Russia’s defense ministry denied that Russian forces had killed civilians in Bucha, and said all photographs and footage showing dead bodies were “yet another provocation.” In a statement, it said all Russian military units had left the town on March 30 and requested that the U.N.
Security Council convene on Monday to discuss this issue.Russia has previously denied targeting civilians and has rejected allegations of war crimes in what it calls a “special military operation” aimed at demilitarizing and “denazifying” Ukraine.