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The European Union will agree to impose its first sanctions against Russia’s energy sector by the end of this week, giving leading officials something to show Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy when they travel to Kyiv, the bloc’s foreign policy chief said on Thursday.
On another critical day of diplomacy in Brussels, Josep Borrell said he expected the EU’s fifth sanctions package, which would ban imports of Russian coal and stop many Russian ships from docking at European ports, would be signed off on Thursday or Friday.
It came after the horrors discovered in the Ukrainian town of Bucha when it was abandoned by Russian forces pushed the EU into softening its earlier opposition to an energy embargo.
A potential second phase of energy sanctions, targeting oil, will be discussed next week after Mr Borrell said the EU’s energy imports had financed Russia to the tune of €35 billion ($38bn) since the war began on February 24 – dwarfing the bloc's €1bn of military aid to Ukraine.
Kyiv wants its allies to complete the set by targeting gas deliveries, for which Europe is particularly reliant on Russia.
“I hope we will never face a situation again when to step up the sanctions pressure, you need atrocities like Bucha to be revealed,” said Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.
Ukraine says hundreds of civilians were found dead after Russian troops withdrew from areas around Kyiv, with western countries speaking of possible war crimes.
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Nato foreign ministers meet in Brussels to discuss the latest in the continuing Russia-Ukraine war. AFP -
People take part in a protest against the transport of cargo to Russia and Belarus near the Polish-Belarusian border crossing in Koroszczyn, eastern Poland. EPA -
A Ukrainian naval vessel, thought to be the ‘Donbas’ and a nearby building burn in the besieged city of Mariupol. AP -
Bucha resident Tetiana Ustymenko weeps over the grave of her son, buried in the garden of her house, in Bucha, north-west of Kyiv. AFP -
People charge their mobile phones in a public building in Bucha. AFP -
People from Mariupol leave a train to be taken to temporary residences in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. AP -
Vladyslava Liubarets, a Bucha resident, cries as she hugs her sister whom she had not seen since the beginning of the Russian invasion, in Bucha, the town which was retaken by the Ukrainian army. EPA -
Local citizen Oleksandr, 55, looks at the grave of his neighbour in the backyard of his private house in Hostomel in Kyiv. EPA -
Debris of a rocket missile on the field near Kyiv. EPA -
The mother of Ukrainian soldier Lubomyr Hudzeliak, who was killed during Russia's invasion of Ukraine, mourns during his funeral in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv. AFP -
A woman takes care of a baby at a shelter in the Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk in Donbas region. AFP -
Residents gather outside a shelter in the city of Severodonetsk. AFP -
Residents in eastern Ukraine, including the city of Severodonetsk in Donbas region, have been asked by their government to leave 'now' or 'risk death'. AFP -
A young girl with her dog arrives at a centre for the displaced in Zaporizhzhia, north-west of Mariupol. AFP -
A damaged ambulance in Hostomel, on the outskirts of Kyiv. Reuters -
A bomb crater left behind by Russia's attack on the Ukrainian village of Demydiv, on the outskirts of Kyiv. Reuters -
Russian attacks have reduced Hotel Ukraine in Chernihiv to debris. Reuters -
Oleksii Shcherbo, 98, near his burnt house in the village of Sloboda, on the outskirts of Chernihiv. Reuters -
Residents walk past destroyed Russian military machinery on the street, in Bucha, the town which was retaken by the Ukrainian army, north-west of Kyiv. EPA -
Damaged National flags flutter in the wind on a cemetry of Chernihiv city which was blocked by Russian troops for a long time. EPA -
Demonstrators lie down on the ground in tribute to the people killed in Russia's war against Ukraine, in Berlin, Germany. AP -
A Ukrainian firefighter works at the site of a burning fuel storage facility ignited by an air strike, in Dnipropetrovsk. Reuters -
A woman before and after she was removed by rescuers from debris after a military strike on the town of Rubizhne, Luhansk. Reuters -
People wait for help to evacuate Derhachi. Reuters -
Pope Francis, in Vatican, holds a Ukrainian flag given to him by a delegation from the town of Bucha, where dozens of bodies had been found. EPA -
State emergency servicemen clear shells near Chernigiv, northern Ukraine. AFP -
US war veteran Steven Straub shows his tattoo of the Ukrainian flag while on patrol near Buda-Babynetska, north of Kyiv, days after Russian forces retreated from the area. AFP -
Candles are arranged in the shape of Ukraine by the monument to the poet Taras Shevchenko in the western city Lviv. AFP -
A teddy bear hangs from a tree branch outside an apartment building in Borodyanka, Kyiv oblast. AP -
A woman carries her cat as she walks past buildings that were destroyed by Russian shelling, in Borodyanka. Reuters -
Dmitriy Evtushkov, 25, points to his picture in a primary school album retrieved from the rubble of a block of flats. AP -
Technicians try to fix the internet in Bucha. AP -
A smashed mobile phone lies next to a Russian army ration book in Bucha. AP -
A woman and children after their arrival at a centre for displaced persons in Zaporizhzhia, about 200 kilometres north-west of Mariupol. AFP -
A man leaves a damaged pharmacy after a bombing that killed several civilians, in Mykolaiv. AP -
Ukrainian soldiers sing a patriotic song with buildings in the background that were destroyed during fighting in Borodyanka. AP -
Borodyanka residents carry humanitarian aid packages. Reuters -
Elderly Ukrainians shelter in a basement in Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine. EPA -
Destroyed apartment buildings in Borodyanka. Reuters -
Relatives and friends are overwhelmed with emotions as they stand next to the coffin of Anatoly German during his funeral. AP
Moscow’s denials that such a massacre took place have been undermined by satellite photos, published by western intelligence and media outlets, showing bodies lying in Bucha’s streets when Russian forces still controlled the town.
While diplomats from the EU’s 27 countries discussed sanctions on Thursday, Mr Kuleba said he had come to a Nato meeting in Brussels with a simple agenda: “weapons, weapons and weapons”.
Asking for planes and heavy air defences, he rejected the distinction made by some Nato members between sending defensive weapons but holding back offensive ones for fear of provoking Russia into widening the conflict.
“Every weapon used in the territory of Ukraine, by the Ukrainian army against a foreign aggressor, is defensive by definition,” Mr Kuleba said. “So this distinction between defensive and offensive doesn’t make any sense.”
Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said he expected the 30-member alliance to agree on new support for Ukraine on Thursday.
The G7 countries – the US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Canada and Japan – were separately holding talks at which Britain said it would lobby for tougher sanctions.
Britain on Wednesday said it would end Russian oil and coal imports by the end of this year, gas deliveries “as soon as possible thereafter” and urged its G7 allies to commit to a timetable for cutting loose from Russian fossil fuels.
The energy-rich US has already banned such imports, while Germany says it is striving extricate itself from Russian supply by 2024 but has so far opposed a blanket embargo because of the economic pain it could cause at home.
Mr Borrell said he hoped the coal sanctions would be in place by the time he and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen visit Kyiv “in the coming days”.
They will become the most senior EU officials there since the war began, after three prime ministers from Eastern Europe travelled by train to Kyiv last month in a show of solidarity with Mr Zelenskyy.
But “what he really needs is more arms”, said Mr Borrell. “Less applause and more arms.”
