EU slams 'war crimes' in Ukraine but new sanctions unlikely

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union countries on Monday accused the Russian armed forces of committing war crimes in Ukraine, but appeared unlikely to impose new sanctions on Moscow despite a clamor across Europe for those responsible for attacks on civilians to be held to account.

With civilian deaths mounting in the besieged port city of Mariupol, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock highlighted the increase in Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure, including hospitals and theaters.

The “courts will have to decide, but for me these are clearly war crimes," Baerbock said.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said before he chaired a meeting of the 27-nation bloc's foreign ministers in Brussels that “what’s happening in Mariupol is a massive war crime. Destroying everything, bombarding and killing everybody in an indiscriminate manner. This is something awful.”

The encircled southern city on the Sea of Azov has seen some of the worst horrors of the war. Multiple attempts to evacuate residents from Mariupol have failed or only partly succeeded. City officials said at least 2,300 people have died in the siege, with some buried in mass graves.

Borrell underlined that “war also has law.” The International Criminal Court in the Netherlands is gathering evidence about any possible war crimes in Ukraine, but Russia, like the United States, doesn't recognize the tribunal’s jurisdiction.

Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said his country is “certainly open to other mechanisms for accountability in terms of the atrocities that are taking place in Ukraine right now.”

Coveney said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is probably the first “war being played out on social media, where people see images happening live, and they’re outraged by it.”

“This is driving a fury across...