U.S. plans new sanctions as Zelensky calls for tribunal

Haunting images of dead bodies littering the streets of a Kyiv suburb and reports of civilian executions are triggering new international condemnation against Russia, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky demanded accountability for what he said amounts to “genocide.”

International outrage over alleged war crimes in a Kyiv suburb is deepening Moscow’s isolation, as the European Commission proposes a ban on Russian coal and the United States plans a new package of sanctions.

The United States has already escalated financial measures against Russia amid reports of atrocities against civilians in Bucha, a suburb of the Ukrainian capital. On Wednesday, the Biden administration will announce more penalties, including a ban on all new investment in Russia, according to a person familiar with the matter. President Biden repeated his assertion that Putin is a “war criminal” and called for further evidence-gathering to prepare for a war-crimes trial. “This guy is brutal, and what’s happening in Bucha is outrageous, and everyone’s seen it,” Biden told reporters Monday.

The Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office estimates the country is using about 50,000 investigators from five different law enforcement agencies to investigate war crimes. They are conducting interviews across the country and meticulously documenting evidence that they hope to use in war crimes prosecutions against Russian President Vladimir Putin and the military force he sent to invade Ukraine.

When the Russian soldiers came to town, they went door to door confiscating residents’ guns, cellphones and sometimes even their homes. They asked everyone to identify the “Nazis” in the neighborhood, also referring to them as “Banderites” — a group of Ukrainian nationalists formed during World War II.

Then, in one southern Ukrainian village, the Russians stormed through the front yard of a 59-year-old math teacher and took him away in their armored vehicle, his wife said.

Tatiana Bozhiko said they accused her husband, Serhii, of sympathizing with Ukraine’s right-wing Azov Battalion. But Serhii never served in the military or belonged to any militias, she said. Tatiana suspected his real crime was that he had the most pro-Ukrainian viewpoints in town and didn’t hide them.

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