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EU proposes sanctions on Russian energy exports as Biden says Putin should face war crimes trial

SANCTIONS directly targeting Russian energy exports were proposed by the EU today while US President Joe Biden called his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin a “war criminal” over reports of massacred civilians in the Kiev suburb of Bucha.

Sweeping sanctions have so far not hit existing energy exports, with European countries heavily reliant on Russian oil and gas to supply industry and agriculture and heat people’s homes.

The European Commission proposed a ban on coal imports and said it was considering a ban on oil imports. It did not mention natural gas — the EU relies on Russia for around 40 per cent of its natural gas and a cut-off has been opposed by Germany as it would likely cause a recession and deprive millions of heating.

Brussels also said it would impose sanctions on more Russian individuals and banks, and ban Russian or Russian-operated vessels from EU ports unless delivering food or energy — though these comprise the bulk of Russian exports to the EU.

US President Biden said on Monday night that evidence of the murder of civilians in Bucha, a Kiev suburb occupied for a month by Russian troops who have now withdrawn, showed that Mr Putin “is a war criminal.

“We have to gather all the detail so this can have a war crimes trial,” the US president added. 

Neither Russia nor the United States recognises the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, making it unlikely that Mr Putin could be brought to trial under current conditions. 

The US declined to punish any of its own officials over last August’s massacre of an Afghan civilian family by drone, saying the 10 killed, including seven children, were victims of “an honest mistake.”

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