The United States and Britain on Wednesday imposed new sanctions on Russia, accused of committing war crimes in Ukraine, where authorities have urged residents in the east of the country to immediately leave the region amid fears of an offensive by the Russian army.
The new sanctions prevent further investment in Russia and provide for the freezing of all US assets of public bank Sberbank and Alfa Bank, the country’s largest private bank.
Washington said the measures were aimed at making Russia a “pariah” in the world economy.
In turn, the UK sanctions determine “the end of British imports of Russian energy” and affect two banks and businessmen.
European Council President Charles Michel said EU countries would have to decide “sooner or later” to adopt sanctions on Russia’s oil and gas, an issue that divides them as some are heavily dependent on gas imports. Russian.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is permanently advocating a tightening of sanctions.
“I cannot tolerate any indecision after all that we have lived through in Ukraine and all that Russian troops have done,” Zelensky said before the Irish parliament.
He was referring to accusations of killings of civilians by Russian troops after the discovery of several bodies in Bucha, a town near Kiev.
On Tuesday, Zelensky called on the UN Security Council to act “immediately” against Russia for its “war crimes”.
International officials fear that other “atrocities” like that of Bucha will appear, as Russian troops head east.
US President Joe Biden denounced “serious war crimes” and said those responsible should be held accountable.
The Kremlin denies killing civilians and claims that Bucha’s images are montages fabricated to have an international impact and enforce sanctions. Putin called them a “gross and cynical provocation”.
However, Germany, a country heavily reliant on Russian gas, said satellite images prove Moscow’s version “is unsustainable”.
The footage, taken when the city was under Russian control, shows what appear to be bodies strewn across the streets, which were later found by Ukrainian forces and journalists as the Russians withdrew.
“The latest news of the war in Ukraine … shows new atrocities, such as the Bucha massacre, and horrible cruelty,” Pope Francis said.
According to the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), 4.24 million people have fled Ukraine since the invasion began on February 24, and there are more than 7 million people internally displaced. The country had 37 million people in pre-war government-controlled regions.
Hungary agrees to pay Russian gas in rubles, says PM
The Hungarian government was willing on Wednesday to pay in rubles, if necessary, for its Russian gas import, unlike other EU countries that rejected Russia’s request.
“We don’t see a problem with paying in rubles. If that’s what the Russians want, we’ll pay in rubles,” Prime Minister Viktor Orban told a news conference in Budapest.
Russia threatened to cut off gas supplies to “hostile” countries that refused to pay in rubles. The measure would mainly affect the EU, which is heavily dependent on this resource.
Hungary is the first country to distance itself from European unity on the issue, as other countries have rejected any payment in rubles to Russia.
Earlier, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto had declared that the EU played no role in the supply of gas, “governed by a bilateral contract”.
“The European Commission’s desire to have a common response from importing countries does not seem necessary to us”, he discarded.
“A technical solution” to apply the conversion must be found between now and the first payment obligation to Russian sector giant Gazprom at the end of May, he added.
Hungary is also heavily dependent on energy supplies from Moscow.
On Tuesday, the European Commission proposed to the bloc’s 27 countries to tighten sanctions against Russia, ceasing their purchases of Russian coal, which account for 45% of EU imports, and closing European ports to Russian ships.
In addition to Hungary, Germany and Austria have publicly expressed their reservations about these measures.
Escape to the west ‘now’
After pulling away from the Kiev region, analysts estimate that Russia will seek to focus its offensive on southern and eastern Ukraine in order to occupy the entire Donbass region and create territorial continuity with Crimea, annexed in 2014.
The Ukrainian authorities urged the inhabitants of that region to leave for the west as soon as possible.
The option is to leave “now” or “to take the risk of death”, said Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk.
On Wednesday, AFP journalists saw bombings in Severodonetsk, a pre-war city of 100,000, on the front line with the pro-Russian separatist Donbass territories.
In Vugledar, also in the east, four civilians were killed in a Russian bombing of a humanitarian aid distribution centre, said the governor of the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kirilenko.
“We know that the Russians are strengthening and preparing to attack,” a senior Ukrainian official told AFP in the Donbass city of Krasnopilia. “We’re ready, we’ve prepared some surprises for them along the way.”
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has warned that Putin has not given up on taking all of Ukraine and that the war could last “months, even years”.
The conflict, the worst in Europe in decades, has so far left 20,000 dead, according to Ukrainian figures.
The war between two major producers of raw materials and, in the case of Russia, of hydrocarbons, caused a spike in food prices and a barrel of oil around the world.
In an attempt to contain inflation, the developed countries that are members of the IEA (International Energy Agency) have announced that they will withdraw an additional 120 million barrels of oil from their reserves. Half of them will be placed on the market by the United States.
‘My mother or my grandchildren’
One of the cities hardest hit by the conflict is Mariupol, which has been besieged and bombed by Russian troops for weeks.
According to its mayor, Vadim Boichenko, some 120,000 people remain entrenched, deprived of water, food and electricity in this coastal city that had half a million inhabitants before the war.
Many evacuees were routed to Zaporizhzhia, about 200 km to the northwest.
“It was the saddest decision I ever made. I had to choose between my mother and my grandchildren,” said Angela Berg, recalling her departure from Mariupol.
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