Russia must be hit with the “maximum level” of sanctions for its atrocities in Ukraine, Liz Truss said on Monday as President Joe Biden called for Vladimir Putin to stand trial for war crimes.
The foreign secretary stressed “nothing is off the table” as she hit out at the “butchery” of Moscow’s forces, including the indiscriminate killing of civilians in the town of Bucha.
“The idea that we should wait for something else bad to happen is just completely wrong,” she said. “The worst has already happened, we’ve already seen appalling atrocities committed in Ukraine with complete impunity”.
Ms Truss, who is visiting G7 allies this week, added: “That is why we want to go the maximum level of sanctions with our allies and partners and that’s why we are pulling the stops out in terms of supplying Ukraine with the support they need to end this appalling war”.
Her remarks came at a joint press conference with Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, who said the horrors committed by Russian forces in the town of Bucha were “just the tip of the iceberg”.
As Ukrainian forces liberated the town – northwest of the capital, Kyiv – officials said troops had found civilian corpses with bound hands, gunshot wounds to the head, and signs of torture.
Mr Biden said the atrocities did not amount to genocide but were war crimes.
“He is a war criminal,” the president told reporters. “But we have to gather the information. We have to continue to provide Ukraine with the weapons they need to continue to fight and we have to get all the detail so this could be – actual have a war crimes trial. This guy is brutal and what’s happening in Bucha is outrageous and everyone’s seen it.”
Russia has dismissed the scenes from Bucha as fake, with foreign minister Sergei Lavrov calling them a “stage-managed anti-Russian provocation”.
Speaking in Warsaw, Poland, Mr Kuleba invited countries with “doubts” over taking further measures, including on imports of Russian oil and gas, and the Swift banking system, to see first hand the horrors inflicted on civilians in the town of Bucha.
The foreign minister said: “Ukraine won the battle for Kyiv – but the war goes on. We are preparing for a new, large-scale offensive by Russia in eastern Ukraine.
“The horrors you’ve seen in Bucha are the just the tip of the iceberg of all the crimes that have been committed by the Russian army in the territory of Ukraine so far.
“I can tell you without exaggeration, but with great sorrow, that the situation in Mariupol is much worse, compared to what we’ve seen in Bucha and other cities, towns and villages nearby Kyiv.”
He also urged representatives on the UN human rights council to “immediately” suspend Russia from the body – a call that was made by both the US and the UK on Monday.
Addressing sanctions, he added: “Half measures are not enough anymore. I demand from our partners, on behalf of the victims of Bucha and the people of Ukraine, to take the most severe sanctions against Russia this week.
“This is not the request of Ukraine’s foreign minister. This is the plea of the victims of rape, torture and killings, their relatives and the entire Ukrainian nation. I have heard thousands of arguments about why this or that sanction cannot be imposed against Russia.
“It is time to put all hesitation, reluctance, business-wise arguments aside and think about human suffering and the need to stop the Russian war machine until it kills and destroys more on its way.”
Also on Monday, western officials have suggested Russia is on course for a “deep recession” in 2022, with growth forecasts ranging from “minus seven per cent to minus 12 per cent” as sanctions bite.
“That would mean it’s worse than the 1998 financial crisis that hit Russia, but also worse than 2008 for them,” officials added.
A warning was also issued that the more than 130,000 new conscripts signed by Putin is “unusually high” and that some of those could be sent to Ukraine.
Elsewhere, they suggested that Russia was re-deploying elements of its forces currently stationed in Georgia to “reinforce” its invasion of Ukraine.
“We don’t think this was planned,” they said. “It’s a very odd thing for the Russian military to do. We suspect it’s indicative of the problems they are having in Ukraine.”
