(Reuters) – Russian forces bombarded cities in Ukraine as the United States imposed more sanctions after civilian killings widely condemned as war crimes.

ECONOMY

* The United States targeted Russian banks and elites with a new round of sanctions, including banning Americans from investing in Russia, in response to what President Biden condemned as “major war crimes” by Russian forces.

* European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen said there were more EU sanctions to come. The EU was looking into oil and revenues Russia gets from fossil fuels, she said.

* Hungary said it was prepared to pay roubles for Russian gas, breaking ranks with the European Union which has sought a united front in opposing Moscow’s demand for payment in the currency.

FIGHTING

* The eastern regions of Kharkiv, Donetsk and Luhansk are seeing the worst of the fighting in Ukraine after Russian forces withdrew from around Kyiv.

* An International Committee of the Red Cross team has led a convoy of buses and private cars carrying more than 1,000 people to Zaporizhzhia after they fled the besieged southern port of Mariupol on their own.

* A total of 4,892 people were evacuated from Ukrainian cities through humanitarian corridors, more than the 3,846 who escaped on Tuesday, a senior Ukrainian official said.

* Ukrainian authorities cannot help people evacuate from the eastern front line town of Izyum or send humanitarian aid because the town is completely under Russian control, the Kharkiv regional governor said.

BUCHA DEATHS

* Civilians killed in the Ukrainian town of Bucha were “very probably war crimes,” French President Macron said in an interview.

* Russia’s foreign ministry said that images of dead bodies strewn across Bucha, which Moscow says were staged, were designed to justify more sanctions against Moscow and derail peace talks with Kyiv.

QUOTES

* “The only thing that we are lacking is the principled approach of some leaders – political leaders, business leaders – who still think that war and war crimes are not something as horrific as financial losses,” Zelenskiy told Irish lawmakers.

“Recent news from the war in Ukraine, instead of bringing relief and hope, brought new atrocities, such as the massacre of Bucha,” Pope Francis said. “Stop this war! Let the weapons fall silent. Stop sowing death and destruction.”

(Compiled by John Stonestreet and Grant McCool)