Ukraine war: Bucha deaths 'not far short of genocide' - PM

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said that the attacks on civilians by Russian forces in the Ukrainian town of Bucha do not look like genocide.

Sberbank and Credit Bank of Moscow are two of the Russian banks that have been targeted by the UK.

Dozens of people were found dead in the town after Russia withdrew.

Moscow denied involvement and called the reports fake.

Following reports of attacks on civilians, the Foreign Office has imposed new sanctions, including ending all imports of Russian coal and oil by the end of the year.

The US has imposed sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin's two daughters.

Ahead of the new sanctions being announced, Mr Johnson said: "I'm afraid when you look at what's happening in Bucha, the revelations that we are seeing from what Putin has done in Ukraine doesn't look far short of genocide."

It is no wonder that people are responding in this way. I have no doubt that the international community will be moving again in lockstep to impose more sanctions on the Putin regime.

The UK will stop buying Russian oil by the end of the year, while the EU will reduce its imports of Russian gas by two-thirds.

The EU is taking steps to reduce dependence on Russian gas.

The sanctions list has eight new additions.

• Viatcheslav Kantor, the largest shareholder of fertilizer company Acron
• Andrey Guryev - known close associate of Vladimir Putin and founder of fertiliser firm PhosAgro
• Sergey Kogogin, director of Kamaz, which manufactures trucks including for the military
• Sergey Sergeyevich Ivanov, president of the world's largest diamond producer Alrosa
• Leonid Mikhelson, founder, and chief executive of Russian natural gas producer Novatek
• Andrey Akimov, chief executive of Russia's third largest bank Gazprombank
• Aleksander Dyukov, chief executive of Russia's third largest and majority state-owned oil producer GazpromNeft
• Boris Borisovich Rotenberg, son of the co-owner of Russia's largest gas pipeline producer SGM.

The latest wave of sanctions would show the Russian elite that they could not wash their hands of the atrocities committed by Mr. Putin, according to the Foreign Secretary.

Sanctions are penalties imposed by countries to stop aggression or punish violations of international law.

The UK has banned some exports to Russia, restricted visas for wealthy investors, and frozen assets of Russian banks in the UK.

The UK will stop buying Russian oil by the end of the year.

It has frozen the assets of more than 1,000 individuals and companies, including politicians and wealthy business leaders who are thought to be close to the Kremlin.

Any funds or resources that are owned or held by a designated person are not allowed to be dealt with by anyone in the UK or any UK company.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer had called for harsher sanctions after seeing harrowing images of civilian deaths.

He said that the international community must be clear that war crimes will end up with those responsible being hunted down.

The deliberate targeting of civilians is a war crime according to the convention.

For a massacre to be considered genocide, the law requires proof of the intent to destroy a particular national, ethnic, racial or religious group.

The Genocide Convention was introduced after the Nazi Holocaust in World War Two and requires the countries that are signatories to it to prevent and punish genocide.