A man stands next to a grave in Bucha, Ukraine
UNITED NATIONS, April 4 (NNN-AGENCIES) — United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply shocked” by images of dead civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, and he called for an independent investigation that “leads to effective accountability.”
Guterres posted his comments on Twitter a day after witnesses and officials said that Russian troops killed almost 300 civilians as they withdrew from the town near Kyiv.
“I am deeply shocked by the images of civilians killed Fantin Bucha, Ukraine,” Guterres said, joining Western officials in expressing outrage.
“It is essential that an independent investigation leads to effective accountability,” he said.
The Russian defense ministry denied that Russian forces killed civilians in Bucha, saying that videos and photographs of bodies were “yet another provocation” by the Ukrainian government.
GERMANY said that the West would agree to impose more sanctions on Russia in the coming days after Ukraine accused Russian forces of war crimes near Kyiv, ratcheting up the already vast economic pressure on Russia over its invasion.
“Putin and his supporters will feel the consequences” of their actions, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in a statement to reporters.
German Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht said the European Union should talk about ending Russian gas imports.
Germany, Europe’s largest economy, has so far resisted calls to impose an embargo on energy imports from Russia, saying its economy and that of other European countries are too dependent on them. Russia supplies 40 per cent of Europe’s gas needs.
ITALY’s Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said the events in Bucha were “unleashing a wave of indignation that will lead to new sanctions” and did not exclude “that in the next few hours there could be a debate on the issue of imports of hydrocarbons from Russia”, he told a programme on Italy’s Rai 3 channel, adding Italy would not veto a fifth package of sanctions.
The UNITED STATES said that those responsible for any war crimes must be held responsible, BRITAIN said it was stepping up its sanctions and FRANCE condemned “massive abuses” by Russian forces in Ukraine.
POLAND: The European Union must impose harsher sanctions on Russia and supply Ukraine with more arms, Poland’s prime minister said as he called for an international tribunal to investigate killings in the town of Bucha.
“The crimes Russia has committed on close to 300 inhabitants of Bucha and other towns outside Kyiv must be called acts of genocide and be dealt with as such,” Mateusz Morawiecki wrote on Facebook.
“Everyone responsible – directly or indirectly- must be severely punished by an international tribunal.”
“The EU must confiscate all Russian assets in its western banks as well as those of Russian oligarchs. It must sever all trade relations with Russia without delay,” Morawiecki wrote.
Russia’s Feb 24 invasion of Ukraine has killed thousands of people and displaced millions.
The Kremlin says the West’s sanctions – the most burdensome in modern history – amount to a declaration of economic war and that Moscow will now look eastwards to partners such as China and India.
Largely cut off from the West’s economies, Russia is facing the biggest economic contraction for decades while prices are rising. Putin said that the West understands nothing about Russia if it thinks Russians will give in to sanctions.
Russia, which has supplied gas to Europe since the 1970s, would be deprived of hundreds of billions of dollars in foreign currency earnings. It would likely toughen its response to the “economic war” of the West. — NNN-AGENCIES
