Europe warns Russia faces new sanctions for ‘war crimes’

Some European Union governments are pushing for the bloc to impose new sanctions quickly in response to repeated reports that Russian troops have executed unarmed civilians in Ukrainian cities, according to diplomats familiar with the talks, according to Bloomberg.

The European Commission was already refining measures that would focus mainly on closing windows, strengthening existing actions – such as export controls on technological goods and imposing full sanctions on banks already cut off from the global SWIFT payment system – and expanding the list of persons subject to sanctions.

Some EU nations say there is now a trigger for new sanctions, with Ukrainian officials citing evidence of war crimes committed by Russian troops in the north, according to a diplomat familiar with the matter.

There is still no consensus on all the details of a new package or when it will be implemented, even as the bloc’s executive arm is meanwhile seeking to submit a series of remedies as early as this week. A small number of Member States, including Germany, oppose imposing sanctions on Russia’s energy, maritime trade and other key sectors, while EU sanctions require unanimous support.
The question for EU members is what actions they will push for a new and more comprehensive set of sanctions. Some continue to argue that such measures should only be investigated if Russia uses chemical weapons or occupies a large city, three diplomats said, asking not to be named as the talks are private.

Other states say the reported incidents in places such as Bukha, a city on the outskirts of Kiev, are enough to justify action. And one of the diplomats said that even the new measures on the table are not enough, given the extent of possible war crimes.

Ukraine has accused Russian troops of killing unarmed civilians, with officials saying they found hundreds of bodies in Bhutan after the withdrawal of Russian troops. Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, posted several photos on Twitter of dead people, some with their hands tied behind their backs. Moscow has not yet commented on the accusation. The Kremlin has previously stated that it targets only the military and basic infrastructure.

It comes as Russia changes tactics in the war, moving troops away from the north after weeks of failing to gain ground. Instead, the campaign focuses on areas to the east, including Donetsk and Luhansk districts of Donbas and Mariupol, a port city that has been under siege for weeks.

Meanwhile, Odessa was shaken by eruptions earlier today. Russia has fired high-precision missiles at ships and aircraft that hit an oil refinery and three storage facilities near the southwestern port city, said Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov.

The Observatory for Human Rights said Sunday that it had recorded several cases of apparent war crimes committed by Russian forces, including brief executions.

“The cases we have identified are tantamount to indescribable, deliberate cruelty and violence against Ukrainian civilians,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Rape, murder and other acts of violence against people under the control of Russian forces should be investigated as war crimes.”

The United States last month officially confirmed that Russian troops had committed war crimes. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said at the time that the United States had seen “credible reports of indiscriminate attacks and attacks deliberately targeting civilians, as well as other atrocities.” President Joe Biden has said he considers Vladimir Putin a war criminal.

More and more frustrated with their counterparts’ stance, several EU countries, including Lithuania and Poland, have announced that they will unilaterally stop importing Russian energy, while Estonia has tabled a proposal to withhold and freeze a share of Russia’s energy revenues. which, he says, could be a first compromise.

One diplomat said the hope was that unilateral moves would lead to an agreement between all member states to do more to avoid the risk of damage to the EU’s united front.