The United States and European countries are threatening to impose more financial and political costs on Russia in response to scenes of horror emerging as Ukraine recaptures more territory near the capital. As Russian troops pull out of northern areas in apparent efforts to refocus on Ukraine’s south and east, the scope of the devastation is coming into grim focus and sparking global calls for war-crime probes— fueled by the discovery of alleged mass graves and images of dead civilians lining the streets in the Kyiv suburb Bucha.

The Biden administration is discussing new sanctions as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who will visit Brussels this week, vowed to use “every tool available” to pursue and hold accountable those responsible for the “app”rent atrocities by Kremlin forces.” The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said Monday that she would seek to expel Russia from the body’s Human Rights Council as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called Russian fo”ces “butchers, rapists and looters” who had committed genocide. Ukraine’s prosecutor general said a task force has found the bodies of more than 400 civilians in the Kyiv region.

In southern Ukraine, missile strikes were reported in the port city of Mykolaiv — with the governor detailing about 2,000 buildings damaged, including hospitals and other health facilities. A Ukrainian official said that members of a Red Cross team tasked with escorting evacuation buses to the battered port city of Mariupol were detained Sunday after failing to reach the city for several days and that Kyiv is working to secure their release. The Red Cross told The Post via email on Monday that “due to security conditions, our team has not been able to reach Mariupol today.”

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image…Ivor Prickett for The New York Times