Truss: war crimes have taken place in Ukraine; Kuleba: crimes in Bucha are just tip of the iceberg

On Sunday, Reuters saw corpses in Bucha including one man who lay sprawled by the roadside with his hands tied behind his back and a bullet wound to his head. The city's deputy mayor said that 50 dead residents had been victims of extra-judicial killings carried out by Russian troops. 

"We are all appalled by the scenes in Bucha, the butchery, the clear evidence of sexual crime, of the targeting of innocent civilians and it is very clear that war crimes have taken place. And we have been working with the ICC (International Criminal Court) we're putting funding in, we've got the Metropolitan Police investigating those war crimes so the perpetrators can be brought to justice," British Foreign Minister Liz Truss said at a press conference in Warsaw, held together with her Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba.

"Now as to the question of genocide, that is a matter for the courts to determine, but what I want to be very clear about is the UK is taking the maximum approach. We're taking the maximum approach on sanctions; as far as we're concerned, nothing is off the table" Truss added.

"Putin must lose in Ukraine. Later this week, the G7 foreign ministers and the NATO foreign ministers will meet. We need to announce a tough new wave of sanctions. The reality is that money is still flowing from the West into Putin's war machine, and that has to stop," said British foreign minister.

"Putin has escalated this war, and this approach (toughness on sanctions) is vital to ensuring he loses in Ukraine and that we see a full withdrawal of Russian troops, and Ukraine's hand is strengthened at the negotiating table. There should be no talk of removing sanctions while Putin's troops are in Ukraine and the threat of Russian aggression looms over Europe," she stressed.

"What you've seen, the horrors that we've seen in Bucha are just the tip of the iceberg of all the crimes (that) have been committed by the Russian Army in the territory of Ukraine so far. And I can tell you without any exaggeration, but with great sorrow, that the situation in Mariupol is much worse compared to what we've seen in Bucha, and other cities, towns and villages nearby Kyiv," said Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.

"Half measures are not enough anymore. I demand from our partners on behalf of the victims of Bucha and the people of Ukraine to take the most severe sanctions against Russia this week. This is not the request of Ukraine's foreign minister. This is the plea of the victims of rape, torture and killings, their relatives and the entire Ukrainian nation," he stressed.

"It's time to put all hesitation, reluctance, business-wise arguments aside and think about human sufferings and the need to stop the Russian war machine until it kills and destroys more on its way."

"I invite foreign representatives, my colleagues, foreign ministers, those who still have doubts whether to disconnect Russian banks from Swift or whether to continue buying Russian gas, oil and coal, or to receive Russian vessels in ports and process products either sold to Russia or bought from Russia. I invite all of them to visit Bucha, without any delay, to visit a small village and stand in front of the mass grave. To see the bodies of dead Ukrainian women who had been raped before being killed and whom the Russians tried to set on fire to hide the traces of their crimes," minister Kuleba said.

"It became apparent to all European leaders that the only opponent that they have is (Russian) President (Vladimir) Putin. If Prime Minister (Viktor) Orban believes that President Zelenskiy is his opponent, while President Putin becomes one of the first, if not the first foreign leader to congratulate Prime Minister Orban with his victory, then it says more about Hungary than about Ukraine," he added.