Joe Biden sanctions Putin's family over Ukraine war; condemns civilian killings in Bucha

US president Joe Biden on Wednesday condemned the chilling war atrocity witnessed in the northwest town of Bucha in Ukraine as he pledged to hold "the perpetrators accountable." In a speech at Washington DC on Wednesday, the US commander in chief slammed the invading Russian troops, who he said committed acts of " brutality and inhumanity" that had been left for all the world, including Washington, to see. "Civilians executed in cold blood and bodies dumped into mass graves. A sense of brutality and inhumanity left for all the world to see unapologetically," said Biden. "There is nothing less happening than major war crimes," he went on to add. 

White House on April 6 also announced coordinated sanction efforts with the European Union and Group of Seven nations that targeted Russia's largest banks, and families of Russian officials including President Vladimir Putin's two daughters, Katerina Tikhonovna and Maria Putina, who are both in their 30s. Biden sanctioned dozens of Moscow’s state-owned entities and banned any new investment in Russia by US nationals.

He also announced sanctions against Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's wife and daughter, the former Russian President, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, and Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin. Biden also blocked sanctions on Moscow’s Sberbank and Alfa Bank and additionally froze any assets "touching the US financial system" in punitive action against Kremlin’s war on Ukraine. 

Biden said that the civilians in Bucha were murdered in cold blood and mass graves have appeared where dead bodies wrapped in plastic were being disposed of. US President had earlier expressed anger at Russian President Putin over the alleged killing and had used a harsh tone to condemn his regime. "This guy is brutal," Biden said of the Russian leader, adding that he believes Putin "is a war criminal". Biden stressed that the devastating scenes of a massacre in Bucha were further evidence that Russian President Vladimir Putin is "a war criminal."

Biden on Wednesday said that the responsible nations "have to come together to hold these perpetrators accountable and together with our allies and our partners we're going to keep raising economic costs, ratchet up the pain for Putin and further increase Russia's economic isolation." He iterated that the West has shrunk Russia's GDP by "double digits" this year, and in one year the economic sanctions were likely to "wipe out" the last 15 years of Russia's financial gains. He also hailed Ukrainians' fighting spirit, as he said, "Thanks to the bravery and the fighting spirit of the Ukrainian people, Russia has already failed in its initial war aims." 

The US commander in Chief on Wednesday condemned the alleged brutal killings in Ukraine as he warned, that his administration will document and share information on these atrocities. “We will use all appropriate mechanisms to hold accountable those responsible,” President Biden said at a White House briefing.  In a statement later on April 6, the White House announced that the United States, with the G7 and the European Union, “will continue to impose severe and immediate economic costs on the Putin regime for its atrocities in Ukraine, including in Bucha.”

It further continued, "As one part of this effort, the United States is announcing devastating economic measures to ban new investment in Russia, and impose the most severe financial sanctions on Russia's largest bank and several of its most critical state-owned enterprises and on Russian government officials and their family members.”

"These sweeping financial sanctions follow our action earlier this week to cut off Russia's frozen funds in the United States to make debt payments. Importantly, these measures are designed to reinforce each other to generate intensifying impact over time,” said the White House, outlining the measures taken by the President of the United States.

'It is obvious war crimes were committed by Russian military': Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby 

Biden’s sanctions announcement came shortly after the Pentagon spokesman John Kirby confirmed that it is “fairly obvious” not just to US but to the world that “Russian forces are responsible for the atrocities in Bucha.” Kirby on Wednesday asserted that while it remains unclear what unit of the Russian military was behind these war crimes—whether they’re contractors or Chechens – but it is Russia that has persecuted the civilians in Bucha. “I don’t think we are able to say right now. But we’re certainly not refuting that these atrocities occurred and occurred at the hands of Russians,” said Kirby. Ukraine’s Army buried more than 300 residents in mass graves. Images of the dead bodies that littered the streets in the town near Irpin with their hands tied behind their backs shocked the world.