Brussels said it was ready to launch a new package of sanctions on Russia that will include a ban on coal imports from the country, a block on transactions with four of its lenders and the closure of its ports to Russian vessels.
Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, said she would also propose to ban Russian and Belarusian road transport operators from the EU. “This ban will drastically limit the options for the Russian industry to obtain key goods,” she said.
The new penalties will be discussed by EU ambassadors this week with a view to obtaining a unanimous agreement among the 27 member states.
Pressure for the new sanctions has increased following claims that Russian forces committed atrocities against civilians around Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital. Russia has dismissed the claims as fabrications.
Von der Leyen said the penalties will include a “full transaction ban” on four Russian banks including VTB, adding that these would now be “totally cut off from the markets”.
Among the other measures in the sanctions package — the EU’s fifth since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24 — are targeted export bans worth €10bn in areas including quantum computers and advanced semiconductors. There will also be specific new bans, worth €5.5bn, on products including wood, cement, seafood and liquor.
The package follows growing calls for the EU to directly target the Russian energy sector, given its contribution to the country’s economy and public revenues.
Among the ideas that are also under discussion are restrictions on oil imports, although these are not expected to be included in this week’s sanctions package.
The majority of Russian exports to the EU are hydrocarbons, Valdis Dombrovskis, commission executive vice-president, said separately following a meeting of EU finance ministers in Luxembourg on Tuesday.
“If we really want to affect Russia’s economy, that is where we need to look, and that is exactly what is subject to discussions concerning this fifth package,” he said.
Bruno Le Maire, the finance minister of France, which holds the EU rotating presidency, confirmed that member states were ready to include the broader energy sector in sanctions under a timeline that is yet to be set out.
“Facing Russian aggression we have to be more unified than ever — and all member states reiterated their willingness to expand import restrictions and step up efforts against Russia, and we discussed extending the list of individuals under sanction and companies as well,” he said.
Work on a possible oil ban includes examining a phasing out of imports coupled with a release of strategic oil reserves.
Other options could include imposing tariffs on Russian oil or channelling some payments into an escrow account to be used to help pay for Ukrainian reconstruction.
North Korea has warned that it will use nuclear weapons to strike South Korea if it was to launch an attack first.
The comments by Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of leader Kim Jong Un, come after South Korea's defence minister said his country's military has missiles that could "accurately and quickly hit any target" in North Korea.
Ms Kim, a senior government official, said it was a "very big mistake" for Suh Wook to make the remarks, according to KCNA, a state news agency.
Pyongyang opposes war, which would leave the peninsula in ruins, and does not view South Korea as its principal enemy, she said on Tuesday.
Image:Suh Wook said South Korea could strike any target in the North
"But if South Korea, for any reason - whether or not it is blinded by misjudgement - opts for such military action as the 'preemptive strike' touted by [Mr Suh], the situation will change," Ms Kim added.
"In that case, South Korea itself will become a target."
Officials in South Korea and the US also fear the North may be preparing the resume nuclear weapon tests for the first time since 2017.
On Sunday, North Korean officials condemned Mr Suh's comments Suh and warned that Pyongyang would destroy major targets in Seoul, the South's capital, if the country was to take any "dangerous military action".
Comments may be aimed at incoming president
Image:Analysts suggest Pyongyang could be attempting to reset relations before Yoon Suk-yeol takes office
It is thought Ms Kim's comments may be aimed at Yoon Suk-yeol, South Korea's incoming president, who has called for a more muscular defence against North Korean threats.
Rachel Minyoung Lee, an analyst with the US-based 38 North project, said: "North Korea has thus far refrained from criticising Yoon at an authoritative level, but it certainly seems to be laying the groundwork for it."
The statements suggest Pyongyang is preparing its people for a possible shift in Korean relations once Yoon takes office in May, she added.
Tragedy has struck a British family holidaying in Australia after a father and his nine-year-old son were killed by a landslide while hiking and the mother and another son were critically injured.
A 15-year-old girl from the same family survived and walked away from the scene - with the support of emergency services staff - in a remote part of the Blue Mountains in New South Wales, officers added.
She was later treated for shock.
The boy and his 49-year-old father died on the Wentworth Falls hiking track, west of Sydney on Monday, New South Wales police said.
The family's 50-year-old mother and a second son, who is 14, were treated at the scene by critical care paramedics before being airlifted out of the valley by a rescue helicopter, New South Wales ambulance spokesman Stewart Clarke told reporters.
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After being assessed, they would be taken to "the most appropriate hospital," Mr Clarke added, with surgery a possibility.
He called the situation "heartbreaking", adding that the patients had "significant head and abdominal injuries" and had to be sedated and intubated to help them breathe before being winched to safety.
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The five were holidaying in Australia, police said, some of the four million tourists drawn to the Blue Mountains National Park each year.
Weeks of wet weather in Sydney preceded the landslip, leaving the area "extremely dangerous and unstable" for rescuers, Mr Clarke said.
Detective Superintendent John Nelson, from the Blue Mountains area command, called it "a tragic scene", adding that rescuers were "working under quite arduous conditions.
"A girl is walking out at the moment, who is obviously clearly [and] extremely distressed," he said.
Officers would try to speak to her to find out what happened, he said.
Weather conditions were reasonable, he said, adding that he understood the hiking trail was open at the time.
Emergency services were called to Wentworth Pass around 1.40pm, after being contacted by someone who was "in or near the group", Mr Clarke said.
Police helicopters, local officers and a specialist rescue team were deployed to the remote location in dense bushland, about a 90-minute walk from the car park.
The injured pair were winched out about 6pm, Mr Clarke said.
"[It is] exceptionally confronting and heartbreaking, especially when you start involving children," he said.
Ambulance chaplains and police support officers also attended "to support our people", Mr Clarke added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called the Russian military "killers, executioners, rapists, marauders who call themselves an army" in his latest address.
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He went on to accuse them of carrying out "a genocide" as reports emerged of hundreds of bodies found in Ukrainian towns before they were liberated, including Bucha near Kyiv.
Mr Zelenskyy said: "To talk about the discoveries in Bucha and our other cities from where the occupiers were expelled. Hundreds of people killed, tortured, executed civilians. Bodies on the streets. Booby-trapped area. Even the bodies of the dead are booby-trapped. Widespread aftermath of looting.
"Concentrated evil has visited our land. The killers, executioners, rapists, marauders who call themselves an army - and who deserve only death after what they've done."
Image:Bucha is a city near Kyiv, where Russia has scaled back military operations
Images emerged on Sunday of Ukrainian civilians lying on the streets of Bucha with witnesses saying the victims were killed by Russian forces without any apparent provocation.
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Bucha's mayor, Anatoly Fedoruk, said more than 300 residents had been killed.
Sky News verified and confirmed the location of two videos showing bodies on the streets of Bucha, including one where at least seven bodies are seen on the road and on the pavement, while satellite images from Maxar appear to show a mass grave in the town on 31 March.
Ukrainian prosecutors investigating possible war crimes by Russia said they have found 410 bodies in towns near Kyiv and 140 of them had been examined.
Some of the victims had their hands tied and were shot in the back of the head, Ukrainian authorities said.
Key developments:
Russian forces accused of genocide and war crimes in Bucha;
Ukraine's top prosecutor says 410 bodies found in towns near Kyiv;
Moscow denies its forces killed civilians in Bucha;
Ukraine's military says Russian units have withdrawn from areas in the country's north;
Kyiv says its forces have taken full control of town of Pripyat just outside decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
Image:A woman points to a makeshift grave of a man killed by Russian forces, according to residents, and buried outside a building in Bucha. Pic AP
Ukrainian officials laid the blame for the killings squarely at the feet of Russian troops, with Mr Zelenskky calling them evidence of "a genocide".
But Russia's Defence Ministry rejected the accusations of atrocities against civilians in Bucha and other suburbs of Kyiv, claiming they were a "provocation".
Western officials have condemned the reports and vowed to work with Ukraine and the International Criminal Court to "ensure those responsible are convicted".
Human Rights Watch said on Sunday that it has documented "apparent war crimes" committed by Russian forces against civilians in Ukraine.
It said it had found "several cases" of war violations in Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Kyiv, including cases of "rape, murder and other violent acts against people in the Russian forces' custody".
Image:Satellite images of the Ukrainian town of Bucha show a trench about 45ft long dug into the grounds of a church
Russian forces are continuing to "consolidate and reorganise" as they refocus their offensive into the Donbas region in Ukraine's east, where they are being joined by Wagner mercenaries, according to the UK's Ministry of Defence.
UN Security Council to meet on Tuesday
Mr Zelenskyy has called on former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former French president Nicolas Sarkozy to visit Bucha and "see what the policy of concessions to Russia has led to in 14 years".
The United Nations Security Council is expected to meet on Tuesday to discuss the situation in Ukraine, where, according to Mr Zelenskyy, Russia's alleged war crimes will be discussed.
Image:Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks from Kyiv
Meanwhile, the South Asian news agency ANI reported that Russia's first deputy envoy to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky, requested a meeting with the council on Monday.
Mr Polyansky called for the meeting after the "blatant provocation by Ukrainian radicals in Bucha" and said Moscow will expose "the Ukrainian instigators and their Western patrons".
PM calls on tougher NATO response
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has condemned Russia's "despicable attacks" on civilians, adding the UK is "stepping up" its sanctions and military support.
He will also seek to galvanise a tougher response from Western allies, including NATO members, against Russia.
On its 73rd anniversary on Monday, Mr Johnson will hail NATO as the "greatest security alliance in the history of the world" - adding that it has a responsibility to support the Ukrainian people as they fight for freedom with "every fibre of their being".
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0:24
Bucha killings are 'genocide'
Representatives from the Polish and German governments will visit and meet Mr Johnson at Downing Street this week to discuss NATO and how to support Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the European Council's President Charles Michel said the European Union is preparing further sanctions following the actions of Russian forces in Bucha.
Shocked by haunting images of atrocities committed by Russian army in Kyiv liberated region #BuchaMassacre
EU is assisting #Ukraine & NGO’s in gathering of necessary evidence for pursuit in international courts.
"Shocked by haunting images of atrocities committed by the Russian army in Kyiv liberated region," Mr Michel said on Twitter on Sunday. "Further EU sanctions & support are on their way. EU is assisting Ukraine & NGOs in gathering of the necessary evidence for pursuit in international courts."
During his latest address, Mr Zelenskyy alluded to the sanctions, saying "there will be a new package" of sanctions against Russia but said "that's not enough" and "more conclusions are needed".
"Our musicians wear body armour instead of tuxedos. They sing to the wounded in hospitals, even to those who can't hear them," he said. "But the music will break through anyway."
The EU is preparing to introduce more sanctions against Moscow after reports of atrocities emerged in the wake of Russia’s military retreat from the outskirts of Kyiv.
Charles Michel, president of the European Council, said further sanctions were “on their way” in response to Russia’s actions in Bucha, a city about 25km north-west of central Kyiv that was under Russian occupation until recently.
“Shocked by haunting images of atrocities committed by Russian army in Kyiv liberated region,” Michel said on Twitter on Sunday. “Further EU sanctions & support are on their way. EU is assisting Ukraine & NGOs in gathering of necessary evidence for pursuit in international courts.”
EU ambassadors are expected to discuss the fresh round of measures on Wednesday, according to a diplomat with knowledge of the plans.
The pledge for more punitive measures against Russia follows strong western condemnation of alleged Russian war crimes on unarmed Ukrainian civilians in recently liberated areas around Kyiv, as Moscow shifts its war focus to the country’s east.
Emine Dzheppar, Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister, said soldiers who had retaken Bucha from Russian forces reported “numerous civilians shot dead”.
“Some of [the] victims have their hands tied. Innocent victims. They didn’t deserve that,” she said.
In the nearby village of Motyzhyn, Russian soldiers also “did terrible things”, she added. “Their cruelty is limitless. Before Ukrainian troops arrived, [the] Russian army killed as many civilians as possible. Inhuman. Terrible. Speechless.”
Images from Bucha were “unbearable”, French president Emmanuel Macron said on Twitter, expressing “compassion” to the “hundreds of civilians cowardly assassinated”. German chancellor Olaf Scholz described “terrible and grisly” scenes emerging from the town, mentioning “roads littered with corpses”.
“You can’t help but see these images as a punch to the gut,” said US secretary of state Antony Blinken, urging the global community against becoming “numb”. Liz Truss, British foreign secretary, also said she was “appalled by atrocities in Bucha and other towns”, adding the UK was collecting evidence of war crimes.
German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock vowed to “intensify sanctions against Russia and provide even more support for the defence of Ukraine”, while her French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian called for “the strongest possible international economic pressure” on Moscow.
Estonian prime minister Kaja Kallas asked for “a fifth round of strong EU sanctions as soon as possible”.
Existing EU measures include banning seven Russian banks from the global Swift payments network, a block on exports of key technologies to Russia including for the defence, energy, telecoms and aviation sectors, a ban on Russian airlines from its airspace, and asset freezes against hundreds of Russian oligarchs and officials, including Putin.
Future measures proposed by some member states include more individual sanctions, a ban on Russian ships using EU ports, more export restrictions and embargoes on energy supplies such as coal, oil or gas — long demanded by Ukraine but previously resisted by some major European economies.
Calls for the sanctions to target Russian energy exports — on which the EU heavily depends — have grown louder. In Italy, one of the EU countries most reliant on Russian gas, Enrico Letta, chief of the centre-left Democratic party, a junior partner in prime minister Mario Draghi’s national unity government, called for a “full oil and gas Russia embargo”.
Buying Russian oil and gas was “financing war crimes”, said Lithuania’s foreign minister Gabrielius Landsbergis. The Baltic country declared it was the first in the EU to stop gas imports from Moscow. “Dear EU friends, pull the plug. Don’t be an accomplice,” he added.
Russia’s ministry of defence on Sunday denied accusations of murdering civilians in Bucha, describing the claims as a “provocation”.
“During the time this settlement was under the control of the Russian armed forces, not a single local resident suffered from any violent actions,” it said in a statement, adding that photos and videos of atrocities are “another production of the Kyiv regime for the western media”.
Human Rights Watch said it had documented several cases of unlawful violence it described as “apparent war crimes”, including in the Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Kyiv regions.
The New York-based group said the cases it documented, which included summary executions and rape, indicated “unspeakable, deliberate cruelty and violence against Ukrainian civilians” which should be investigated as war crimes.
Gyunduz Mamedov, a former deputy prosecutor-general of Ukraine and specialist in international criminal law who has visited Irpin and Bucha, said that, in addition to the widespread destruction of infrastructure, he had seen corpses of civilians and freshly dug graves marked with crosses.
He said about 50 per cent of the buildings in Irpin had been damaged and about 300 civilians killed during the Russian offensive.
Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said such “brutality against civilians” had not been seen in Europe for decades, adding that it was “extremely important” for the International Criminal Court to open an investigation into potential war crimes in Ukraine.
Carla Del Ponte, the former chief prosecutor of UN war crimes tribunals, called on Saturday for an international arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin, describing the Russian president as a “war criminal”.
Meanwhile, Russian negotiators handling peace talks between the two countries said there would be fresh discussions on Monday. Vladimir Medinsky, head of the Russian delegation, said Russia accepted the Ukrainian position with the exception of its stance on Crimea.
Additional reporting by Nastassia Astrasheuskayain Riga, Guy Chazan in Berlin, Richard Milne in Oslo, Jasmine Cameron-Chileshe in London and Lauren Fedor in Washington
At least six people have been killed and 10 injured in a shooting in the centre of Sacramento, police in California's state capital say.
People fled through the streets after rapid gunfire rang out in an area packed with restaurants and bars in the early hours of Sunday.
Police nearby responded to the gunfire and came across a "very large crowd", police chief Katherine Lester said.
No suspect is yet in custody in the wake of the shootings.
"This is a really tragic situation," Chief Lester said.
The officer said investigators had arrived at the scene and urged the public to come forward with any information that might help identify those responsible.
The shooting took place at around 02:00 (09:00 GMT) in an area at 10th Street and K that leads to the Golden One Center, where the Sacramento Kings play basketball.
It is also only a few streets from the state Capitol building.
Community activist Berry Accius reached the scene at about 02:30 after a city council member called him about the shooting.
"The first thing I saw was like victims," he was quoted as saying by CBS News.
"I saw a young girl with a whole bunch of blood in her body, a girl taking off glass from her, a young girl screaming saying, 'They killed my sister.' A mother running up, 'Where's my son, has my son been shot?'"
Kay Harris, 32, said she was asleep when one of her family members called to say they thought her brother had been killed. She said she thought he was at London, a nightclub at 1009 10th Street, the Associated Press reports.
She said she has been to the club a few times and described it as a place for "the younger crowd".
The incident is certain to inflame the ongoing debate about gun violence and the prevalence of lethal weapons in US society.
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