Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky visits the town of Bucha on April 4 2022, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues. Picture: UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE via REUTERSRussian artillery pounded key cities in Ukraine on Wednesday, as President Volodymyr Zelensky urged the West to hit Moscow with tougher sanctions in response to civilian killings widely condemned as war crimes.
A senior administration official told reporters that if Putin changed course in Ukraine, sanctions could slow and possibly reverse. “I can’t tolerate any indecisiveness after everything that Russian troops have done,” Zelensky told Irish MPs by video link. Some Western leaders “still think that war and war crimes are not something as horrific as financial losses”, he said.
Germany, Europe’s largest economy which relies on Russian gas for much of its energy needs, warned that while it supported ending Russian energy imports as soon as possible it could not do it overnight. The new sanctions may increase economic hardship for Russians without denting Russia’s energy revenues that much, say US sanctions analysts.
Hungary’s Orban said he had spoken with Putin and asked him to announce an immediate ceasefire. He said he invited Putin for talks in Hungary with the Ukrainian and French presidents and the German chancellor. Putin’s response was “positive”, he said, but the Russian leader said there would be conditions.