European Council chief Charles Michel says the European Union will need to slap sanctions on Russian energy such as oil and gas "sooner or later," as the bloc looks to ramp up pressure on Moscow in the face of reports of war atrocities being committed in Ukraine by Russian troops.
"I think that measures on oil and even gas will also be needed sooner or later," Michel told the European Parliament in an address on April 6.
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Michel urged European lawmakers to consider such moves, aimed at Moscow's main source of income, after he said reports of war crimes being committed by Russian troops in towns such as Bucha were "yet more proof that Russian brutality against the people of Ukraine has no limits."
Russian news agencies reported that the state-owned energy giant Gazprom continued to supply natural gas to Europe via Ukraine on April 6, in line with its contracts. Requests stood at 108.4 million cubic meters for April 6, similar to volumes on the previous day, the Interfax news agency reported, citing the operator of Ukraine's gas pipelines.
The United States and its European allies are expected to impose harsh new sanctions on Russia on April 6 in a move aimed at increasing Russia’s economic and technological isolation as a penalty for its attacks on civilians in Ukraine.
The joint action will include new sanctions on financial institutions, a ban on new investment in Russia, toughened sanctions on government-owned enterprises, and more sanctions on Russian government officials and their family members, according to the White House.
“The biggest part of our objective here is to deplete the resources that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin has to continue his war against Ukraine,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on April 5.
The U.S. Treasury Department already took steps on April 5 to make it harder for Russia to meet its financial obligations by blocking any Russian government debt payments with U.S. dollars from accounts at U.S. financial institutions.
Britain announced it has frozen some $350 billion in assets from Putin's "war chest" so far. Foreign Minister Liz Truss said that this makes more than 60 percent of Russia’s $604 billion in currency reserves unavailable.
The EU said a fifth package of measures that it announced targets oil and coal exports and bars Russian ships from European ports.
WATCH: A children's summer camp in Ukraine is the site of another grisly atrocity. In a basement, there were bodies with their hands tied behind their backs and bullet holes in their heads. The Ukrainian authorities said it was a war crime committed by Russian forces.
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Inside An 'Execution Cellar' In Ukraine
The actions come as evidence of atrocities committed by Russian troops continues to pile up. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told the UN Security Council on April 5 that Russian troops had committed some of the worst war crimes since World War II and urged the council to hold Moscow accountable.
Much of the focus has been on Bucha, a town near Kyiv where Russian forces were positioned until their withdrawal late last week. People there said they witnessed brutal killings and torture, and evidence has emerged of mass graves and the indiscriminate targeting of civilians.
Russian Ambassador to the UN Vasily Nebenzya said that while Bucha was under Russian control “not a single local person has suffered from any violent action.” Reiterating the Kremlin’s previous statements, he said videos showing bodies in the streets were “a crude forgery” staged by the Ukrainians.
“You only saw what they showed you,” he said. “The only ones who would fall for this are Western dilettantes.”
Zelenskiy said the events in Bucha will make “even the possibility” of peace talks with Russia a challenge.
WATCH: Russian troops allegedly shot a 72-year-old professor when he tried to defend his home and protect neighbors in the Kyiv suburb of Irpin. Yevhen Khrykov was killed after Russian forces found him and about a dozen neighbors sheltering in a basement, according to his widow.
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Russian Troops Allegedly Shot 72-Year-Old Ukrainian Professor In Irpin
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the West of fueling "hysteria" over alleged Russian war crimes as a way to derail negotiations. Several rounds of talks so far have yielded no deal.
Lavrov said that Moscow won’t accept a Ukrainian demand that any prospective peace deal include an immediate pullout of troops followed by a Ukrainian referendum on the agreement.
In televised remarks, he said a new deal would have to be negotiated if the vote failed, and “we don’t want to play such cat-and-mouse.”
Western military officials say Russian forces that have pulled back from the area around Kyiv are now regrouping for deployment in eastern and southern Ukraine. Fresh battles are expected in the region commonly known as the Donbas, where Russia-backed separatists already hold territory.