Mass murder, torture and rape, the slaughter of innocents, mobile crematoria to burn corpses and dispose of the evidence, wholesale destruction of entire towns and villages, the use of prohibited weapons.
All this and yet the EU continues bankrolling the Putin regime to the tune of a billion euros a day.
There may be a lot of outrage and handwringing in Brussels, and more sanctions, but the fundamentals remain the same.
The Russian economy has batted off the impact of Western sanctions so far, the rouble’s back to pre-war levels and so the Russian military continues its unprovoked rampage.
The West has unveiled what America calls devastating new sanctions. More sanctions on banks, investment in Russia, trade and individuals.
The EU is set to agree to ban Russian vessels from its ports, ban all new investment in the country and stop importing Russian coal.
The coal embargo will cost Russia four billion euros a year. Just four billion. It makes that much in oil and gas imports to Europe in less than a week.
An embargo on Russia’s entire energy sector would mean a temporary and painful hit to European economies.
But one respected economist in Germany, the country most dependent on Russian gas and oil, has calculated GDP would be reduced by between 0.5 and 3%.
That is a manageable cost of between 100 euros and a thousand for each German family.
‘Russia undeterred by wave of revulsion’
The cost of this war grinding on indefinitely and possibly spreading is likely to be far greater in terms of impact on the global economy.
European officials acknowledge a change is needed but member states are failing to act. European Council president Charles Michel tweeted that “measures on oil and even gas will also be needed sooner than later”.
Russia has been completely undeterred by the wave of revulsion over the atrocities in Bucha and elsewhere. In fact, the Kremlin seems to be only threatening a lot worse.
Read more: Luhansk could be ‘even worse’ than Mariupol and Bucha, says governor
Yesterday, a Kremlin-linked commentator published chilling proposals for a programme of action in Ukraine that adds up to genocide.
In the state-run news agency Ria Novosty, an article entitled ‘What Russia should do with Ukraine’ took the logic of President Putin’s rhetoric on Ukraine to its genocidal extreme.
The article proposed the occupation of the entire country, the mass execution of any Ukrainian who does not cooperate and the renaming of Ukraine to ‘Little Russia’.
It agreed with Putin’s characterisation of Ukraine as an anti-Russian artificial construct. Through one of its mouthpieces the Kremlin’s response to global condemnation over atrocities in Ukraine seemed to add up to this. We have only just started.
‘Political will to defund invasion has not been found’
EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell has pointed out “a billion euro is what we pay Putin every day for the energy he provides us since the beginning of the war. Compare that to the billion we have given to the Ukraine in arms and weapons”.
But so far EU member states and their governments have not found the unity or political will to defund the invasion.
Russia’s military has taken huge losses in this war. Conservative estimates suggest Putin has lost 275 tanks more than the entire number in the British army.
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If he wishes to continue with his genocidal ambitions for Ukraine he will need to redeploy and rearm. If Europe keeps buying oil and gas its homeowners and industry will be directly funding that effort.
The West has failed utterly in its effort to deter Putin. It promised severe calibrated sanctions if he invaded Ukraine, but he ignored the threat. It threatened tougher sanctions if it went on and he has only increased its savagery.
It is unsurprising he has not taken its threats seriously. Despite Russian excesses in Chechnya, Georgia and Syria, Europe led by Germany has become more and more hooked on Russian energy hoping it would make Russia richer, more progressive, and more like the West.
Instead its naivety has only strengthened the oligarchic gangster kleptocracy that runs Russia to the huge cost of its people and now those of Ukraine.
Funding a dictator while his military carries out some of the most obscene atrocities witnessed since the last war is surely unconscionable.
Can Europe find the courage and unity to change direction? Not yet it seems.
