The United States and western allies plan to impose additional sanctions on Russia on Wednesday after the emergence of troubling new evidence of war crimes in Ukraine, the White House said Tuesday, according to The Associated Press.
The new penalties will include a ban on all new investment in Russia. Among the other measures being taken against Russia are greater sanctions on its financial institutions and state-owned enterprises, and sanctions on government officials and their family members, said White House press secretary Jen Psaki.
“The goal is to force them to make a choice,” she said. “The biggest part of our objective here is to deplete the resources that Putin has to continue his war against Ukraine.”
Separately, the Treasury Department moved Tuesday to block any Russian government debt payments with US dollars from accounts at US financial institutions, making it harder for Russia to meet its financial obligations, noted AP.
The sanctions follow the discovery of hundreds of bodies in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha as Ukrainian forces retook areas previously occupied by the Russian army.
Germany, France, Britain, the US, and the European Union condemned Russia following the discoveries, with France, Britain, and Germany calling for a war crimes investigation.
On Monday, US President Joe Biden called Russian President Vladimir Putin a "war criminal" and called for him to be put on trial following reports of the mass graves in Bucha.
“He is a war criminal,” Biden told reporters. “This guy is brutal, and what’s happening in Bucha is outrageous and everyone’s seen it."
“I think it is a war crime," he added. "He should be held accountable.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday addressed the UN Security Council and accused Russia of committing crimes the likes of which have not been seen since World War II.
“Now the world can see what the Russian military did in Bucha,” Zelenskyy said. “But the world has yet to see what they have done in other occupied cities and regions of our country.”
Zelenskyy called on the Security Council to "act immediately" in order to “remove Russia as an aggressor and a source of war, so it cannot block decisions about its own aggression, its own war.”