The US president responded to the gruesome images that were spread around the world after the discovery at the weekend of a mass grave and corpses in civilian clothes, some with their hands tied, in the city of Bukha, near Kyiv. “You may remember that I was criticized for calling Putin a war criminal,” Biden told reporters at the Fort McNair military outpost in Washington. “Well, the truth of the matter – we saw it happening in Bucha – is a war criminal.” On a visit to Bucha, about 30 kilometers northwest of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, Ukrainian President Voloymir Zelenskiy went on to say that the city was a scene of war crimes that would be “recognized by the world as genocide.” “Stand here today and see what happened,” Zelensky told reporters, dressed in a bulletproof vest on a rare trip outside the capital. “We know that thousands of people have been killed and tortured with severed limbs. women were raped, children were killed. “ The scale of the killings is still unclear. Ukraine’s Attorney General Iryna Venediktova said 410 civilian bodies had been retrieved in the greater Kiev area following the withdrawal of Russian troops, while Bucha Mayor Anatoly Fedoruk said the city had buried 280 people in mass graves because of the graves. her was under fire. In nearby Motyzhyn, an adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, Anton Herashchenko, showed the partially covered corpses of the village head, her husband and their son to reporters. They were shot and buried in a shallow grave, he said. “The occupiers suspected that they were collaborating with our army, giving us locations where we would target our artillery,” Herashchenko said. “These scum tortured, slaughtered and killed the whole family. They will be held responsible for this. “ French President Emmanuel Macron has called for “very clear measures” against Moscow, including an embargo on Russian oil and coal, and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has said the bloc is working urgently for a new round. remains in solidarity with Ukraine in “dark times for the whole world”. Macron said there was “clear evidence of war crimes” in Bucha: “The Russian army was there. We have told the Ukrainian authorities that we were at their disposal to assist in their investigation. “International justice must prevail.” Germany on Monday deported about 40 Russian diplomats in response to what its foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, described as “unbelievable barbarism” and the “unrestricted will of the Kremlin to exterminate” Ukraine, as well as the temporary control of its German subsidiary. Russian gas giant Gazprom. to secure its energy supply. France later said it was deporting a number of Russian diplomats, saying their actions were “contrary to our security interests”. As the UN Security Council prepares to discuss Ukraine on Tuesday, its human rights commissioner, Michelle Bachelet, said airstrikes and heavy bombardment during the Russian invasion had killed civilians in actions that could be tantamount to war crimes. The British mission to the UN, which chairs the 15-member Security Council in April, said the council would not meet on Monday as Russia had requested to discuss what Moscow claimed was a “heinous challenge” from Ukraine. The Kremlin on Monday again rejected all allegations of civilian killings in Bucha, saying Ukrainian allegations should be treated with skepticism and that the images of corpses “do not correspond to reality.” “We categorically reject all allegations,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peshkov, adding that Russian Defense Ministry experts had “found signs of various forgeries” and urged international leaders “not to rush into scandalous allegations.” us”. Biden said it was necessary for the international community to “gather all the details” to ensure that the Russian president would face a war crimes trial, describing Putin as “violent.” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says the EU is sending investigators to Ukraine to help local authorities document war crimes. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has called for an international inquiry into what he called “genocide” carried out by Russian troops, saying it was vital to “find out the truth about the extent of Russian fascist crimes”. Urging more and more harsh Western sanctions and an end to “negotiations with criminals”, Morawiecki said the “bloody massacres committed by Russian soldiers deserve to be called what they are.” “This is genocide and it must be judged.” The Polish leader criticized Macron’s efforts in recent weeks to keep the lines of communication open with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, saying: “No one negotiated with Hitler.” He also told German Chancellor Olaf Soltz that Berlin should not listen to “German businessmen and German billionaires” about sanctions, but “the voices of innocent women and children.” The Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sanchez, also said that the West must do everything in its power to ensure that those responsible for “these alleged cases of crimes against humanity, war crimes and – why not say so” and genocide “will not go unpunished. Asked if he agreed with the description of the genocide, Biden replied: “No, I think it is a war crime.” But the US president confirmed that he would seek to inflict more economic pain on Russia, saying: “I will continue to add sanctions.” Scholz said new EU sanctions would be agreed in the coming days, while the Italian foreign minister – another member who, like Germany, relies on Russian gas imports – said he would not veto the energy embargo. But German Finance Minister Christian Lindner warned it was too early to cut off Russian gas to Europe. “We have to cut all economic ties with Russia, but at the moment it is not possible to cut off gas supplies,” he said. “We need some time.” Europe’s worst conflict in decades, sparked by Russia’s invasion on February 24, has already killed 20,000 people, according to Ukrainian estimates. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced on Monday that more than 4.2 million refugees have fled the country. “Humanitarian needs are increasing every minute as more people leave the war in Ukraine,” said the International Organization for Migration, adding that in addition to Ukrainian refugees, nearly 205,500 non-Ukrainians living, studying or working in the country have fled and almost 6 have left. 5 million people were displaced inland. The United States also said Monday that it would ask the UN General Assembly to suspend Russia from the UN Human Rights Council. “Russia’s participation in the Human Rights Council is a hoax,” said Washington’s ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield. “It’s time for the UN General Assembly vote to remove them.” Biden first described Putin as a “war criminal” in an exchange of views with a journalist on March 16, apparently surprising his own officials.
