Macron joined a Western condemnation troupe on Monday after reports of atrocities and mass graves emerged over the weekend from Bukha, a city about 25 kilometers northwest of Kiev, and other areas that had until recently been under Russian occupation. “There are very clear indications of war crimes,” the French president said in an interview with France Inter radio on Monday. “What happened in Bucha requires a new round of sanctions and very clear measures, so we will coordinate with our European partners, especially Germany.” He added: “I think in oil and coal we have to be able to move forward. We must definitely proceed with the sanctions. . . We can not accept that. ” He did not call for a ban on imports of Russian gas, which remains a critical source of fuel for Germany, Italy and some Eastern European countries. Josep Borrell, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs, said the bloc would hold Russia and its government accountable for “war crimes” in Ukraine and would work on new sanctions against Moscow “as a matter of urgency”. “Elementary images of large numbers of civilian deaths and losses, as well as the destruction of political infrastructure, show the true face of Russia ‘s brutal war of aggression against Ukraine and its people,” Borrell said. “The massacres in the city of Bukha and in other cities of Ukraine will be included in the list of atrocities committed on European soil.” EU ambassadors are due to discuss a new package of sanctions on Wednesday. The bloc – which is currently being rotated by Macron – has so far been slow to ban imports of Russian gas, oil and coal, on which some of its members are heavily dependent. Russia exports about 8 million barrels a day of crude oil, concentrates and refined products worldwide, of which 4.5 million barrels a day go to Europe. About 1 million b / d per day reaches the Druzhba pipeline, mainly to Mediterranean refineries in Eastern Europe. Russia is also the EU’s largest supplier of thermal coal, accounting for 70 per cent, or 36 million tonnes, of the bloc’s imports last year, according to Eurostat. Some EU countries have unveiled plans to drastically reduce the use of Russian products in the coming months and years. However, Berlin resisted the immediate cessation of imports because it did not have sufficient alternative sources of supply in the short term. Lars Klingbeil, leader of Germany’s ruling Social Democrats, says “immediate gas embargo [is] wrong way, for many reasons “. “Every day we turn off the gas tap a little more,” he added. But in order to stop gas supplies overnight, “we had to talk about the consequences for us in Germany.” Economy Minister Robert Habeck said Germany had made good progress over the past four weeks in reducing its dependence on Russian gas. “We are pursuing a strategy of gaining independence from Russian gas, coal and oil, but not immediately,” he told ZDF on Sunday night. He reiterated that Germany plans to suspend imports of Russian coal by the end of the summer and Russian oil imports by the end of the year.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a videotaped speech late Sunday: “It’s time to do our utmost to make the Russian army’s war crimes the latest manifestation of such evil on earth.” Iryna Venedyktova, Ukraine’s attorney general, said 410 civilian bodies had been retrieved from the Kiev region. The Ukrainian army said it had recaptured more territory from Russian forces, recapturing a village near Chernihiv, about 150 kilometers northeast of the capital, and Pripyat outside the Chernobyl nuclear reactor, about 150 kilometers northwest of Kiev. However, the military warned that Russia would continue to attack critical infrastructure, particularly the besieged port city of Mariupol and Odessa, which was targeted over the weekend. Mykolayiv Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych said Russian troops had launched several rocket attacks on the southern city early Monday. U.S. officials and leaders from across the EU have condemned the reports from Bucha and other areas near the capital, with Richard Moore, head of the British intelligence service MI6, saying “we know Putin’s invasion plans included brief executions by the military and its intelligence services “. China, which has refused to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine, offered a tacit response on Monday. State media did not report the alleged killings, and posts on Chinese social media by prominent bloggers questioned the accuracy of the reports. Russia’s Defense Ministry has denied the allegations, saying it was a “challenge” planned by Ukraine to Western media.

Zelensky pledged to set up a “justice mechanism” by the State Department, the Attorney General’s Office and other branches of government to help “bring to justice those who fired or in any way participated in it.” . . crimes against our people “. Zelensky also criticized former Western leaders who were slow to react to Vladimir Putin’s aggression and offered too many concessions to the Russian president for more than a decade. “More conclusions are needed. “Not only for Russia, but also for the political behavior that actually allowed this evil to come to our land,” he said. Additional reference by Neil Hume in London