The EU on Wednesday was discussing a new package of sanctions against Moscow in response to the atrocities committed by retreating Russian troops in Bucha and other towns on the outskirts of Kyiv.

The measures are set to widen the list of oligarchs being targeted by the bloc, as well as the restrictions on Russia’s banking sector in a bid to starve the Kremlin’s war machine of funds.

The latest round of sanctions was also expected to impose export bans worth €10 billion (£8.3 billion) on quantum computers and advanced semiconductors, and an additional embargo worth €5.5 billion (£4.6 billion) on goods including wood, cement, seafood and alcohol.

Katerina Tikhonova and Mariya Vorontsova, Putin’s daughters, are set to be placed under sanctions.

Herman Gref, the head of Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, and Oleg Deripaska, the aluminium magnate, were also added to the list of individuals with asset freezes and travel bans across the bloc.

On Thursday, the EU is expected rubber-stamp a proposed ban on the import of all types of Russian coals as part of the sanctions package.

Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, said that member states would have to ramp this up to include oil and gas “sooner or later”.

“I think that measures on oil and even gas will also be needed sooner or later,” he told MEPs in Strasbourg.