Ukrainian minister says Russia’s ‘crimes’ in Bucha are ‘tip of iceberg’

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the “horrors we saw in Bucha are just the tip of the iceberg of all the crimes that have been committed by the Russian army” in Ukraine so far.

Kuleba’s comments came Monday at a press conference in Warsaw, at which he added that the “horrors of Bucha, Mariupol and elsewhere” call for “serious sanctions from the G7 and the EU.

Speaking alongside his British counterpart Liz Truss, Kuleba called for “the toughest” sanctions to be imposed against Russia, as well as demanding Russia’s expulsion from the UN Human Rights Council.

“The West continues to feed [a] Russian war machine with fossil fuel payments, with trade that is still taking place between Russia and Western countries, with financial transactions carried out through Russian banks that have not yet been disconnected from Swift,” he said.

Addressing the foreign ministers who will attend the NATO, EU and G7 meetings this week, Kuleba said: “If you have any doubts, reluctance or arguments about the need to continue doing business with Russia, go to Bucha first. and then talk to me”.

He added that Ukraine had “won the battle for Kiev” but was now preparing for a “new large-scale Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine”.

“I can say without exaggeration, with great sadness, that the situation in Mariupol is much worse compared to what we saw in Bucha and other cities, towns and villages close to Kiev,” continued the Foreign Minister.

Russia denies that it has targeted civilians in Bucha. Alexander Bastrykin, head of Russia’s Investigative Committee, ordered an investigation to be launched into “deliberately false information” said by Ukraine about Russian armed forces in Bucha, the committee said in a statement.