West Adds Heft To Sanctions Against Russia In Wake Of Civilian Deaths Outside Kyiv

The United States and Britain have imposed new and tougher sanctions against Russia in response to the killings of civilians in towns near Kyiv, and the European Union planned similar steps as U.S. President Joe Biden denounced the widespread killing of Ukrainian civilians as "war crimes."

The United States targeted Russia's largest bank, a private investment bank, and oligarchs in a new package of sanctions that includes a ban on all new U.S. investment in Russia. The fresh sanctions also targeted President Vladimir Putin's two adult daughters.

The sanctions against Sberbank and Alfa Bank mean the United States is "locking down" any accounts or funds those banks have in the United States, Biden said in a speech on April 6 to a labor-union conference in Washington.

Biden said the new sanctions were in response to the killings of civilians in towns near Kyiv, whose bodies he said were left "for all the world to see, unapologetically."

Biden said he was sure the union members had seen the pictures from Bucha showing "bodies left in the streets as Russian troops withdrew, some shot in the back of the head with their hands tied behind their backs. There's nothing less happening than major war crimes."

The steps that Washington has taken thus far "are predicted to shrink Russian GDP by double digits this year alone," Biden said. And the United States will continue to raise the economic costs on Russia, he said, urging "responsible nations" to come together to hold the perpetrators of crimes in Bucha and other towns accountable.

Britain also announced a ban on investment in Russia and a freeze on the assets of Credit Bank of Moscow and Sberbank, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said. In addition, London said it would end imports of Russian oil and coal by the end of the year.

The latest British measures amount to "some of our toughest sanctions yet" and were "decimating Putin's war machine," Truss said.

The European Union plans to ban imports of Russian coal, and European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen said there would be more EU sanctions to come.

European Council chief Charles Michel said on April 6 that the bloc will need to slap sanctions on Russian energy such as oil and gas "sooner or later."

SEE ALSO: EU's Michel Says Sanctions On Russian Oil, Gas Will Be Needed 'Sooner Or Later'

The actions come as accusations of atrocities committed by Russian troops continue 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.

A spokeswoman for UN General Assembly President Abdulla Shahid said on April 6 that the assembly will vote on April 7 on suspending Russia from the body's Human Rights Council amid reports that Russian troops committed atrocities in the Ukrainian town of Bucha.

Two-thirds of the countries who cast votes in the 193-member assembly must support suspension for Russia to be temporarily removed from the Geneva-based council.

SEE ALSO: As Evidence Of War Crimes In Bucha Mounts, A Hunt For Russian Military Units

In an address to the Irish parliament on April 6, Zelenskiy warned Europe that there is no time for hesitancy in adopting measures against Russia. He said he could no longer "tolerate any indecisiveness after everything we have gone through in Ukraine and everything that Russian troops have done."

"We still need to convince Europe that Russian oil cannot feed the Russian military machine with new sources of funding," Zelenskiy said in urging that the continent cut off imports of Russian crude.

Much of the world's focus over the past few days 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."

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.

Inside An 'Execution Cellar' In Ukraine

Zelenskiy said the events in Bucha will make "even the possibility" of peace talks with Russia a challenge.

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."

SEE ALSO: NATO Chief Says Russian Forces Near Kyiv 'Repositioning,' Not Withdrawing

Ukraine and Russia are now gearing up for what could become a major battle in eastern Ukraine. Calls for the evacuation of civilians from towns near the front line have been stepped up ahead of the anticipated Russian offensive.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said intelligence reports showed Russia is repositioning its troops for a major offensive in the eastern part of Ukraine to capture enough area to create a land bridge between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula.

Stoltenberg also said Russia's war with Ukraine could last a long time, as Putin has shown no signs of changing "his ambition to control the whole" country.

"We have to be realistic and realize that this may last for a long time, for many months, for even years," Stoltenberg said ahead of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels on April 6.

The region includes the shattered port city of Mariupol, where authorities continue strained efforts to evacuate civilians. Heavy fighting and Russian air strikes are continuing there, British military intelligence said early on April 6.

The humanitarian situation in the city is worsening. Most of the 160,000 remaining residents have no light, communication, medicine, heat, or water, the Defense Ministry said in a statement.

"Russian forces have prevented humanitarian access, likely to pressure defenders to surrender," it added.

More than 3,800 people were able to leave Mariupol on April 5 along agreed humanitarian corridors, said Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk.

But a convoy of seven buses that had set out to evacuate people from Mariupol had not managed to make its way through a Russian blockade, Vereshchuk said.

Russia's Defense Ministry said Ukrainian forces had "cynically disrupted" the evacuation effort, TASS cited a senior official as saying.

The buses, however, were able to evacuate people from the city of Berdyansk, including some people from Mariupol who had made it that far.

Ukraine's General Staff said the northeastern city of Kharkiv remained under attack on April 6, and Kyiv expected Russian forces to launch a full-blown assault soon to try to take the city.

Several towns in the Luhansk region were being shelled by artillery, and the assault on the city of Mariupol continues, the General Staff said in a report on April 6.

Many in the town of Derhachi, which lies just north of Kharkiv, have decided to leave while they can. At least eight buses and vans left the town on April 6 in an evacuation organized by the International Committee of the Red Cross.

"This convoy's arrival to Zaporizhzhya is a huge relief for hundreds of people who have suffered immensely and are now in a safer location," Pascal Hundt, the ICRC's head of delegation in Ukraine, said in a statement. "It's clear, though, that thousands more civilians trapped inside Mariupol need safe passage out and aid to come in."

Ukrainian authorities said nearly 5,000 people were evacuated from combat areas on April 6.

Vereshchuk said late on April 6 that 1,171 people were evacuated from the besieged city of Mariupol, and 2,515 more left the cities of Berdyansk and Melitopol and several smaller cities and towns in the south. They traveled to Zaporizhzhya by bus or in their own vehicles. Vereshchuk said an additional 1,206 people were evacuated from the eastern region of Luhansk.

Vereshchuk and other officials have been urging residents of eastern regions to evacuate in the face of an impending Russian offensive.

Meanwhile, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said that, as of April 4, Russia's war had killed 1,480 civilians and wounded another 2,195.

"Most of the civilian casualties were caused by the use of explosive weapons with a wide range of damage, including heavy artillery and rocket-propelled grenade launches, as well as missiles and air strikes," the statement said.

The UN believes that the real numbers of dead and wounded is much higher as information from some places where hostilities are taking place is delayed, and many reports need to be confirmed.

With reporting by AP, Reuters, and RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service