Extract from ABC News
US President Joe Biden has called for a war crimes trial against Russian President Vladimir Putin and said he'd seek more sanctions after reported atrocities in Ukraine.
Key points:
- Mr Biden says Mr Putin should face war crimes trial for Bucha killings
- Ukraine prisoners of war say their treatment broke international legal standards for conduct of armed conflicts
- Mr Zelenskyy said it is harder for Ukraine to negotiate with Russia following Bucha killings
"You saw what happened in Bucha," Mr Biden told reporters at the White House.
"This warrants him — he is a war criminal."
Warning: This article contains graphic content that may disturb some readers.
Mr Biden's comments to reporters came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Bucha, one of the towns surrounding Kyiv where Ukrainian officials say 300 local residents had been killed by Russian forces while Chechen fighters controlled the area.
The destruction and civilian deaths in Bucha looks set to galvanise the United States and Europe into additional sanctions against Moscow, with officials raising the prospect of restrictions on Russia's energy exports.
"We have to continue to provide Ukraine with the weapons they need to continue the fight. And we have to gather all the detail so this can be an actual — a war crimes trial," Mr Biden said.
Mr Biden's comments came after Mr Zelenskyy said it had become harder for Ukraine to negotiate with Russia since Kyiv became aware of the scale of alleged atrocities carried out by Russian troops.
"We know of thousands of people killed and tortured, with severed limbs, raped women and murdered children.
"These are war crimes and will be recognised by the world as genocide.
"The longer the Russian Federation drags out the negotiating process, the worse it is for them and for this situation and for this war."
Bucha's deputy mayor said on Sunday that 50 residents had been victims of extra-judicial killings carried out by Russian troops.
The Kremlin has denied any accusations related to the killing of civilians in Bucha.
Ukrainian officials took journalists to the basement of what they said was a summer residence for children and showed them the bodies of five men with their hands tied behind their backs.
The
officials said the five people, who all wore civilian clothes, had been
killed by occupying Russian soldiers before Ukrainian troops retook
control of the town.
"They were shot, shot either in their head or in their chest. They were tortured before they were killed," said Anton Herashchenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian interior ministry.
"Now we are investigating this and we show [it] to the international press."
He said Russian soldiers had set up camp inside the building and stayed there for three weeks.
Reuters could not independently verify his account.
Bucha the tip of the iceberg
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Monday the evidence of civilian killings from Bucha is just the "tip of the iceberg" and that there is a need for tougher sanctions on Moscow.
"The horrors that we've seen in Bucha are just the tip of the iceberg of all the crimes [that] have been committed by the Russian Army," Mr Kuleba said at a press conference alongside British Foreign Minister Liz Truss.
"Half measures are not enough any more. I demand most severe sanctions this week, this is the plea of the victims of the rapes and killings."
"If you have doubts about sanctions go to Bucha first," he said.
Ms Truss added that it was "very clear" that war crimes have been committed by Russian military forces against civilians in Ukraine.
"Now as to the question of genocide, that is a matter for the courts to determine."
Buses blocked from Mariupol but some make it out
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said more than 1,550 civilians were evacuated from the besieged port of Mariupol in south-eastern Ukraine on Monday.
Ms Vereshchuk said a total of 2,405 people were evacuated along a humanitarian corridor route running from Mariupol to the Ukraine-held city of Zaporizhzhia, with 1,553 of those coming from Mariupol itself and the rest from other locations in the heavily contested area.
They used the dwindling number of private vehicles left in the area to get out of Mariupol.
A convoy of seven buses sent to help remained unable to enter the city to collect people, she said.
Mariupol, on the Sea of Azov, is a key Russian military objective that has faced horrific bombardment.
Ms Vereshchuk added that 971 other people were evacuated from five locations in the eastern Luhansk region, where Russia is now focusing much of its military efforts.
She accused Russia of "systematically breaching" a local ceasefire planned to facilitate evacuations there.
Prisoners of war speak out
Returning Ukrainian prisoners of war believe their treatment by Russia while in captivity broke the Geneva Conventions.
Ukrainian human rights ombudswoman Lyudmyla Denisova said some former prisoners had reported that they had been kept in basements, denied food and made to take off their uniforms.
Reuters could not independently verify her assertions.
Russia did not immediately respond to Ms Denisova's comments.
"Russia flagrantly violates the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War. These facts were confirmed during the last liberation of Ukrainian citizens from enemy captivity," Ms Denisova wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
The Geneva Conventions establish international legal standards for conduct of armed conflicts and seek to limit their humanitarian impact.
Ms Denisova said the Russian actions violated article 13 of the conventions, which calls for humane treatment of prisoners of war.
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