BRUSSELS, March 16 (Reuters) – The European Union on Monday imposed sanctions on nine individuals it said played a role in the 2022 Bucha massacre and four individuals it said were involved with Russia’s foreign information manipulation and interference.
Kyiv has said more than 1,400 people were killed in Bucha, a suburb near the Ukrainian capital, during a 33-day occupation by Russian forces at the start of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The Council of the EU said in a statement that the individuals sanctioned include Colonel General Aleksandr Chayko, “the most senior Russian military officer on the ground in Ukraine at the outset of the full-scale invasion” who was “lead commander in Ukraine when Russian troops entered Bucha”.
The EU also imposed sanctions on several alleged Kremlin propagandists, including the Franco-Russian Adrien Bocquet, whom French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot described earlier on Monday as “a key recruiter of foreign fighters in Ukraine, responsible for glorifying war crimes, and also responsible for disinformation campaigns in Europe and Africa.”
(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon and Lili Bayer; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Ros Russell)
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