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Britain sought to step up pressure on the Kremlin on Tuesday by urging allies to go after Russian gold in the next round of sanctions over the war in Ukraine.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss also told G7 countries to extend sanctions to cover sea trade and more of the banking sector, after evidence of apparent atrocities near Kyiv amplified calls to hit Russia harder.
Ms Truss revealed Britain had frozen more than $350 billion of foreign currency reserves as part of sanctions she said were “pushing the Russian economy back into the Soviet era”.
But she said another of her demands would be “going after new industries filling Putin’s war chest, like gold”.
She did not give further details, but her call comes after the G7 raised concerns at its last meeting about Russia’s central bank using gold to evade sanctions.
The G7 countries — the UK, US, Germany, France, Italy, Canada and Japan — are expected to discuss further sanctions on Thursday, on the sidelines of a meeting of Nato foreign ministers in Brussels.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is heading to Brussels, said the Russian attacks in the war were part of a “deliberate campaign”.
"What we've seen in Bucha is not the random act of a rogue unit. It's a deliberate campaign to kill, to torture, to rape, to commit atrocities. The reports are more than credible. The evidence is there for the world to see," he said.
European sanctions introduced so far have hit Russia’s financial sector and prominent individuals in the Kremlin’s inner circle. The EU on Tuesday proposed banning coal in its first move against the Russian energy sector.
Ms Truss said sanctions needed to be tightened because “the only way to end this war is for Putin to lose in Ukraine”.
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In the courtyard of their house, Vlad Tanyuk, 6, stands near the grave of his mother Ira Tanyuk, who died because of starvation and stress due to the war, on the outskirts of Kyiv. AP -
A Ukrainian soldier walks with children passing destroyed cars due to the war against Russia, in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine. AP -
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy surveys the destruction in Bucha. AFP -
Residential buildings damaged during fighting in the southern port city of Mariupol. Reuters -
A bridge damaged by shelling in Bucha. EPA -
A soldier stationed in Bucha, after the city was the recaptured by the Ukrainian army. EPA -
Chervona Voloshin kisses Varvara Statenova goodbye as she heads home to Kyiv after being housed at a shelter for displaced people in Lviv, Ukraine. Getty Images -
Parts of a destroyed aircraft at the Antonov airport in Hostomel, outskirts of Kyiv. AP -
A Ukrainian territorial defence serviceman walks past a destroyed Russian armoured personnel carrier in the town of Borodianka, north-west of Kyiv. AFP -
Tanya Nedashkivska recounts how her husband Vasyl Ivanovych, who served in Ukraine’s navy, was killed by Russian soldiers, in Bucha, Ukraine. He was arrested by Russian soldiers. Tanya looked for him for days and found him in a building's basement where two bodies were lying. She recognised him by his shoes and trousers. AP -
Damaged residential buildings in the southern port city of Mariupol. Reuters -
Families arrive to board a train at Kramatorsk central station as they flee the eastern city, in the Donbas region. AFP -
Romanian politicians listen to President Zelenskyy’s speech by video link, on a screen in the parliament in Bucharest. AP -
The remains of a Russian Su-35 aircraft that was hit by the Ukrainian armed forces in Kharkiv. Reuters -
A damaged monument to Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko in the besieged city of Mariupol, southern Ukraine. Reuters -
A man removes a door covering the opening to an underground concrete enclosure in which bodies of civilians killed by Russian forces, residents say, were dumped as people were unable to transport them to a cemetery in Bucha, Ukraine. AP -
A Ukrainian soldier tries to convince a puppy to drink milk as residents wait for distribution of food products in Motyzhyn, Ukraine, which was until recently under the control of the Russian military. AP -
The pain of war is evident as women wait for food aid in the village of Motyzhyn. AP -
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appears on screen during the 64th Grammy Awards at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. AFP -
The gutted interior of a theatre in central Mariupol, destroyed in the course of Ukraine-Russia conflict. Reuters -
Desolation in Mariupol which has suffered intense bombardment. Reuters -
A Ukrainian soldier walks in front of the remains of an Antonov An-225 Mriya cargo plane, the world's biggest aircraft, destroyed by Russian troops at an airfield in the city of Hostomel, in the Kyiv region. Reuters -
A local woman salutes Ukrainian soldiers in the Chernihiv region. Reuters -
A woman hugs a Ukrainian soldier after a convoy of military and aid vehicles arrived in the formerly Russian-occupied town of Bucha, near Kyiv. AP -
Smoke rises after an attack by Russian forces in Odesa. AFP -
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy presents an award to an injured Ukrainian service member at a military hospital in Kyiv. Reuters -
A destroyed building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. AFP -
People, mainly women and children, pass through the Medyka border crossing on their journey out of Ukraine and into Poland. Getty
“Although Russian troops have been defeated in their initial assault on Kyiv, there has been no change in their intent and ambition,” she said during a visit to Poland on Tuesday.
British military intelligence said in a daily update that Russian units withdrawing from around Kyiv were likely to need significant re-equipping and refurbishment before they can return to the battlefield.
It said low-level fighting was likely to continue in some of the areas recently recaptured by Ukraine but that this was expected to subside over the coming week.
Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Russia appeared to be reorganising its forces for a renewed push in southern and eastern Ukraine and an attempt to secure a land bridge between Crimea and the Donbas.
“This is a crucial phase of the war,” he said, as he predicted allies would provide further military support including anti-tank weapons to Ukraine.
Ms Truss meanwhile said the UK was working with Poland and Ukraine to increase co-operation in cybersecurity.
It came as the UK government published a document setting out what it said was “malign cyber activity” by three intelligence services in Russia; the FSB, SVR and GRU.
It accused the FSB, the successor of the Soviet-era KGB, of running a cyber operations squad called Centre 16 which has targeted critical infrastructure in Europe, the Americas and Asia.
The UK has also discovered Centre 16 hackers trying to gain unauthorised access to the computers of dissidents, political opponents and the Russian public, it said.
