The United States and its allies on Wednesday prepared new sanctions on Moscow over civilian killings President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described as "war crimes," as heavy fighting and Russian airstrikes pounded the besieged port of Mariupol.
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The southern city has been under constant bombardment by Russian forces since the early days of the invasion almost six weeks ago, trapping tens of thousands of residents and leaving them without food, water, or power.
"The humanitarian situation in the city is worsening," according to a British military intelligence report released Wednesday.
"Most of the 160,000 remaining residents have no light, communication, medicine, heat, or water. Russian forces have prevented humanitarian access, likely to pressure defenders to surrender," according to the report.
Western sanctions over Russia's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, the biggest assault on a European nation since World War II, gained new impetus this week after dead civilians shot at close range were discovered in the northern town of Bucha after Ukrainians regained control of the territory.
Moscow denied targeting civilians in Bucha and described evidence presented as a "monstrous forgery" staged by the West to discredit it.
New sanctions set to be unveiled Wednesday are in part a response to Bucha, the White House said.
The measures, coordinated between Washington, the Group of Seven advanced economies, and the European Union, will target Russian banks and officials and ban new investment in Russia, the White House said.
"The goal is to force them to make a choice," White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said. "The biggest part of our objective here is to deplete the resources that Putin has to continue his war against Ukraine."
Separately, the Treasury Department moved Tuesday to block any Russian government debt payments with US dollars from accounts at US financial institutions, making it harder for Russia to meet its financial obligations.
US President Joe Biden's administration also announced Tuesday night that it was sending an additional $100 million worth of military assistance to Ukraine. Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said the new equipment will meet "an urgent Ukrainian need for additional Javelin anti-armor systems."
Biden and US allies have worked together to levy crippling economic penalties against Russia for invading Ukraine more than a month ago, including the freezing of central bank assets, export controls, and the seizing of property, including yachts, that belong to Russia's wealthy elite. But calls for increased sanctions intensified this week in response to the attacks, killings, and destruction in the Ukrainian city of Bucha.
The sanctions are intended to further Russia's economic, financial, and technological "isolation" from the rest of the world as a penalty for its attacks on civilians in Ukraine, Psaki said. That isolation is a key aspect of the US strategy, which is premised on the idea that Russia will ultimately lack the resources and equipment to keep fighting a prolonged war in Ukraine.
Psaki said the administration is assessing "additional consequences and steps we can put in place" but underscored that Biden is not weighing any military action.
An increasingly desperate Russia has engaged in military tactics that have outraged much of the wider global community, leading to charges that it is committing war crimes and causing other sanctions.
Still, almost all of the EU has refrained from an outright ban on Russian oil and natural gas that would likely crush the Russian economy. The US has banned fossil fuels from Russia, while Lithuania blocked natural gas from that country on Saturday, becoming the first of the 27-member EU to do so.
The EU executive branch on Tuesday proposed a ban on Russian coal and the entry of Russian ships to EU ports, while Germany's government intends to end its use of Russian natural gas over the next two years.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the bloc was working on banning oil imports, as well. Europe, which obtains about a third of its natural gas from Russia, has been wary of the economic impact of a total ban on Russian energy.
Signaling strengthening EU resolve, Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said the coal ban was the first step toward an embargo on all Russian fossil fuel imports. Ukraine has argued banning Russian gas is vital to securing a deal to end the war in peace talks.
After an impassioned address to the UN Security Council on Tuesday, Zelenskyy said new sanctions "against Russia must be commensurate with the gravity of the occupiers' war crimes," calling it a "crucial moment" for Western leaders.
New Zealand said on Wednesday it would impose a 35% tariff on all imports from Russia and extend export bans on industrial products connected to strategic Russian industries.
"The images and reports emerging of atrocities committed against civilians in Bucha and other regions of Ukraine is abhorrent and reprehensible, and New Zealand continues to respond to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's mindless acts of aggression," Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta said in a statement.
The United States has agreed to provide an additional $100 million in assistance to Ukraine, including Javelin anti-armor systems, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.
US chipmaker Intel Corp said it had suspended business operations in Russia, joining a slew of companies to exit the country.
In the small Russian city of Kaluga, thousands of autoworkers have been furloughed and food prices are soaring as Western sanctions hit its flagship foreign car makers.
Ukrainian officials say between 150 and 300 bodies might be in a mass grave near a church in Bucha, north of the capital Kyiv.
Satellite images taken weeks ago show bodies of civilians on a street in the town, a private US company said, undercutting Russia's claims that Ukrainian forces caused the deaths or that the scene was staged.
Residents have recounted cases of several others slain, some shot through their eyes and one apparently beaten to death and mutilated.
On Monday, Biden called for his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to be tried for war crimes and face new sanctions because of the atrocities and abuses seen around Kyiv after Russian forces pulled back from the Ukrainian capital. The corpses of what appeared to be civilians were seen strewn in yards, many of them likely killed at close range.
Biden said the US and its allies would gather details for a war crimes trial, stressing that Putin has been "brutal" and his actions "outrageous."
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