RUSSIA's actions in the Ukrainian rown of Bucha are "not far short of genocide", Boris Johnson has said.

The Prime Minister made the comments today on a visit to a hospital in Welwyn Garden City.

He said there would be "more sanctions and more penalties" against Vladimir Putin's regime, and said he was unsurprised by the international condemnation of the Kremlin forces in Ukraine.

Before now the UK Government has been reluctant to describe the actions of Russia in Ukraine as genocide, saying it sghuold be a decision of a court. 

However Mr Johnson said today: "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 to me.

"I have no doubt that the international community, Britain very much in the front rank, will be moving again in lockstep to impose more sanctions and more penalties on Vladimir Putin’s regime."

Over the past several days images and footage of mutilated bodies have emerged from towns surrounding Kyiv, which had been previously occupied by Russian forces before they retreated.

Yesterday Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the UN Security Council that his citizens had been tortured, raped and murdered in horrific circumstances by Russian forces.

The Kremlin has denied the actions, accusing the West and Ukraine of planting bodies to frame their soldiers.  

Western nations are now preparing to issue fresh sanctions targetting Russian oil and gas imports to Europe, hoping to seize some of the revenues to fund the rebuilding of Ukraine.

Under the EU’s sanctions plan, a portion of the revenues, which have totalled €19 billion since Russia’s invasion on February 24, would be diverted from energy firms to an "escrow" bank account that has been set up for aid to Kyiv.

Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, met with fellow EU ambassadors today to discuss the escalation in sanctions, banning coal imports and a timetable for a possible oil embargo. 

She said: "These sanctions will not be our last sanctions. Yes, we have now banned coal but now we have to look into oil. And we’ll have to look into the revenues that Russia gets from these fossil fuels.

“We really have to make an effort. For example, an escrow banking system so that we will really limit the source of revenues. This is the next step we have to take together."

Meanwhile the USA has announced sanctions on Putin's two daughters in a further escalation of its penalties against Russia, citing retaliation for "war crimes". 

It has also blacklisted the country's largest bank, Sberbank. 

The penalties will put full blocking sanctions in Sberbank  which holds one-third of Russia's total banking assets, and Alfabank, a senior U.S. official told reporters. Energy transactions are blocked from these sanctions, the official said.

Vladimir Putin's adult daughters,Maria Ivanovna Putina and Katerina Tikhonovna Shkrebneva, have been blacklisted alongside Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's wife and daughter, and members of Russia's security council, the official said. Americans are banned from investing in Russia, the official said, including through venture capital or mergers.