Ukraine: Putin’s ‘barbaric’ actions leave UK ‘in no doubt’ further sanctions needed, No 10 says

Boris Johnson says ‘discovery of mass graves of more mass graves outside Kyiv is sickening’

No 10 has said Russia’s “barbaric” actions and the killing of civilians in the town of Bucha leaves the government in “no doubt” further sanctions are needed against the Kremlin.

In an update on Monday, Boris Johnson also said the discovery of mass graves was “sickening” and vowed: “The UK will not stand by whilst this indiscriminate and unforgivable slaughter takes place.”

It comes after Ukrainian officials said troops had found civilian corpses with bound hands and gunshot wounds to the head after Vladimir Putin’s forces pulled out of the town northwest of the capital, Kyiv.

Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, accused the Russian army of “genocide” in a video message on Sunday evening, describing the soldiers as “murderers, torturers, rapist looters — who call themselves the army”.

Asked about the scenes of atrocities over the weekend, the prime minister’s official spokesperson told reporters it was Mr Johnson’s view Putin “crossed the threshold of barbarism some time ago”.

“Obviously what we’ve seen over the weekend is barbaric,” they said.

“These are despicable attacks against innocent civilians and they are yet more evidence that Putin and his army are committing what appear to be war crimes in Ukraine and certainly they leave us in no doubt that its entirely right to continue to go further on sanctions, on defensive military aid, and all other measures to pressure on Putin and his regime to turn back and stop this war”.

Pressed on whether military aid to Ukraine would include anti-ship missiles – in order to target Russian warships near the critical port of Odesa – the spokesperson said: “I’m not going to get into speculation about the types of kit we are considering at this stage.

“We will obviously provide updates as and when it’s suitable, but certainly the prime minister is keen to look beyond what we’ve already provided, and go further”.

As Liz Truss visits Nato countries this week and push for further sanctions, the spokesperson added: “We will continue to speak with our allies about how we can move further and as much as possible in lockstep to continue to ratchet up pressure”.

In a message posted on social media, the foreign secretary, who is currently meeting with her counterparts in Poland, added: “Reports of mass graves outside Kyiv are truly horrifying. We are working with allies and the ICC [International Criminal Court] to ensure the perpetrators are held to account.

This map shows the extent of Russian invasion of Ukraine (Press Association Images)

“We will not rest until Russia has paid the price for these appalling crimes”.

As the prime minister prepares to publish a long-awaited strategy on energy security later this week, his official spokesperson also stressed the UK and its allies needed to move at “maximum speed” to cut out supplies of oil and gas funding the Russian war machine.

“We know that different countries are exposed to relying on Russian oil and gas more than others and so that presents different challenges,” they said.

“But they should all — and we should all — be moving at maximum speed to cutting out oil and gas because it is simple money that we are providing, that these countries provide, to Russia that is funding the Russian war machine and we should be in no doubt about where that money is going”.