Reports that Russian troops have killed dozens of civilians in Ukraine have been called “war crimes” by the international community, prompting calls for more action against Moscow, which has called the reports “provocative.”

US President Joe Biden on April 4 called for Russian President Vladimir Putin to be tried for war crimes and said he planned more sanctions against Russia.

“This man is brutal… what is happening in Bucha is cruel,” Biden said, referring to the Ukrainian town outside Kiev, where Russian forces have reportedly killed dozens of civilians.

According to Biden, Putin is a “war criminal”

His comments came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Buchanan, where Ukrainian officials said they had found the bodies of civilians.

Zelensky called the actions of Russian forces “genocide” and called on the West to impose more sanctions on Russia.

During his visit to the town, Zelensky, who was accompanied by military personnel, said such scenes make it even more difficult to sit down with Russia and negotiate an end to the war, which began on February 24. , as a result of Russia’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine.

“Every day, when our fighters enter and retake territories, you see what happens,” said the Ukrainian leader.

“These are war crimes and the world will consider them genocide,” Zelensky said, adding that he expected data on similar crimes to be found in other occupied regions once Russian forces were expelled from them.

Zelensky is expected to speak on April 5 before UN Security Council diplomats, who are angry at reports that Russian forces have deliberately killed civilians, some in yards, streets or homes, and have their bodies left like that.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has also predicted that data on the killing of civilians could be found in other towns occupied by Russian forces.

“The horror we have seen in Bucha is just a piece of the iceberg of all the crimes committed by the Russian army,” Kuleba told a news conference in Warsaw.

“Half-measures are no longer enough. I call for tougher sanctions this week; this is the prayer of rape and murder victims. “If you have doubts about sanctions, go to Buca first.”

Moscow has denied the allegations, and some Kremlin officials have described them as “provocations” aimed at discrediting Russia.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “We reject all suspicions.”

He added that Russia was seeking a meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss what Moscow considered “Ukrainian provocations.”

Britain, which currently holds the presidency of the Security Council, has said that the institution will discuss the situation in Ukraine, as planned, on April 5.

Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed, without data, that the images in Bucha were “another staging of the Kiev regime” and that all Russian military troops had left the town before March 30.

The Investigative Committee in Russia said on April 4 that it would launch an investigation into allegations that Ukraine had spread “false information” about the actions of Russian forces in Bucha.

The European Union (EU) has begun discussions on new sanctions against Russia following reports of atrocities, said EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.

The United States and its allies are coordinating new sanctions against Russia and plan to introduce them this week, said US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.

Sullivan has also said that Russian forces are repositioning themselves in the eastern and southern regions of Ukraine, after facing greater resistance than expected from the Ukrainians in Kiev.

German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht has told ARD that European officials “should talk about cutting off gas supplies from Russia”, although German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has previously resisted sanctions affecting Russian energy exports. .

The United States and Britain have said they intend to withdraw Russia from the United Nations Human Rights Council.

The US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, has said that Russia’s presence in this Council is a “farce”.

Other countries in the world have also condemned the alleged atrocities in Ukraine and called for measures against Russia.