Kremlin says Bucha is 'monstrous forgery' aimed at smearing Russia
Kremlin said on Tuesday that Western allegations Russian forces committed war crimes by executing civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha were a "monstrous forgery" aimed at denigrating the Russian army.
Since Russian troops withdrew from towns and villages around the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, Ukrainian troops have been showing journalists corpses of what they say are civilians killed by Russian forces, destroyed houses and burnt-out cars.
The West says the dead civilians are evidence of war crimes. Reuters saw dead bodies in the town of Bucha but could not independently verify who was responsible for the killings.
"It is simply a well-directed - but tragic - show," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. "It is a forgery aimed at denigrating the Russian army - and it will not work."
"We once again urge the international community: detach yourself from such emotional perceptions and think with your head," Peskov said. "Compare the facts and understand what a monstrous forgery we are dealing with."
Guilty of genocide
Ukraine says Russia is guilty of genocide and US President Joe Biden on Monday accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of war crimes and called for a trial.
Vladimir Putin
The Kremlin said Biden's remarks were unacceptable and unworthy of a leader of the US.
The outcry over the discovery of so many dead civilians, some shot in the head, after Russia's withdrawal from areas around Kyiv, has prompted Western promises to impose even tougher sanctions on Russia.
The European Commission (EU) is to propose sweeping new sanctions against Russia, including a ban on imports of coal, rubber, chemicals and other products, an EU source told Reuters.
Russia's economy is already heading for its biggest economic contraction since the years following the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union after the West largely cut Russia out of the Western financial system and sanctioned its richest businessmen.
Russia says fakes
Russia casts the evidence of civilian executions in Bucha as a cyclical ploy by Ukraine and its Western backers, who Moscow says are gripped by discriminatory anti-Russian paranoia.
"These are fakes that matured in the cynical imagination of Ukrainian propaganda," Dmitry Medvedev, who served as president from 2008 to 2012 and is now deputy secretary of Russia's Security Council, said of Bucha.
Medvedev said the fakes had been concocted for vast amounts of money by Western public relations companies and "tame" non-governmental organisations. He did not provide specific evidence.
He suggested that Ukrainian forces had been prepared to kill their own citizens in a bid to discredit Russia.
The Kremlin said Biden's remarks were unacceptable and unworthy of a leader of the US.
The outcry over the discovery of so many dead civilians, some shot in the head, after Russia's withdrawal from areas around Kyiv, has prompted Western promises to impose even tougher sanctions on Russia.
The European Commission (EU) is to propose sweeping new sanctions against Russia, including a ban on imports of coal, rubber, chemicals and other products, an EU source told Reuters.
Russia's economy is already heading for its biggest economic contraction since the years following the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union after the West largely cut Russia out of the Western financial system and sanctioned its richest businessmen.
Russia says fakes
Russia casts the evidence of civilian executions in Bucha as a cyclical ploy by Ukraine and its Western backers, who Moscow says are gripped by discriminatory anti-Russian paranoia.
"These are fakes that matured in the cynical imagination of Ukrainian propaganda," Dmitry Medvedev, who served as president from 2008 to 2012 and is now deputy secretary of Russia's Security Council, said of Bucha.
Medvedev said the fakes had been concocted for vast amounts of money by Western public relations companies and "tame" non-governmental organisations. He did not provide specific evidence.
He suggested that Ukrainian forces had been prepared to kill their own citizens in a bid to discredit Russia.
A satellite image of Bucha
Russia's defence ministry said it had evidence that the 72nd Ukrainian Main Center for Psychological Operations had helped stage such propaganda in a village 23 km (14 miles) northwest of Kyiv as well as in Sumy, Konotop, and other towns.
Partial narrative
Russia has not published evidence for its claims but it says Western media have provided an excessively partial narrative of the war in Ukraine that largely ignores Russia's concerns about the enlargement of Nato and the persecution of Russian speakers.
"The collective West has blinkered its eyes and ears and doesn't want to listen to anything," Peskov said.
Moscow has questioned why, if its forces withdrew from Bucha on March 30 and the mayor of Bucha declared the area free of Russian forces on March 31, the bodies of dead civilians were only shown for the first time on April 3.
Russia also says the bodies shown in some footage did not show characteristic signs of degradation that would be expected after a number of days.
Putin says the "special military operation" in Ukraine is necessary because the United States was using Ukraine to threaten Russia and Moscow had to defend Russian-speaking people in Ukraine from persecution.
Ukraine has dismissed Putin's claims of persecution and says Russia is fighting an unprovoked war of aggression.
- Reuters
Russia's defence ministry said it had evidence that the 72nd Ukrainian Main Center for Psychological Operations had helped stage such propaganda in a village 23 km (14 miles) northwest of Kyiv as well as in Sumy, Konotop, and other towns.
Partial narrative
Russia has not published evidence for its claims but it says Western media have provided an excessively partial narrative of the war in Ukraine that largely ignores Russia's concerns about the enlargement of Nato and the persecution of Russian speakers.
"The collective West has blinkered its eyes and ears and doesn't want to listen to anything," Peskov said.
Moscow has questioned why, if its forces withdrew from Bucha on March 30 and the mayor of Bucha declared the area free of Russian forces on March 31, the bodies of dead civilians were only shown for the first time on April 3.
Russia also says the bodies shown in some footage did not show characteristic signs of degradation that would be expected after a number of days.
Putin says the "special military operation" in Ukraine is necessary because the United States was using Ukraine to threaten Russia and Moscow had to defend Russian-speaking people in Ukraine from persecution.
Ukraine has dismissed Putin's claims of persecution and says Russia is fighting an unprovoked war of aggression.
- Reuters
The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a monstrous act of tyranny.
ReplyDeleteIs that the BEST rant u can farted?
DeleteWhy not let a team of international medical experts to do AUTOPSIES on ALL the available & identified corpses. These autopsies would be able to narrow the time of dead. Then correlate that with the Russian military duration in Bucha.
Similarly, the Maxar satellite image is showing a FEW corpses lying on the same stretch of the roads. The timing corresponds with the Russian advances. Could they be the collateral casualties of street fights between the two parties?
The biggest catches r the explanations of all those smoking dead men, bandaged corpses, all inside the body bags , showing signs of movements! No blood clots & stains too!
What about those executions of those hand-tied corpses who worn white arm bands?
Why the current pommie UN chair refuses the Russia request for debating the Bucha massacre?
Mmmm… too many questions, no answer & yet full of orchestrated rages!
The comedian president comes with a strong supports of a media oligarch. Perhaps he is just performing scenes from his ≪servants of the people≫ - with the additional inputs of Yankee Hollywood scripting!
"Blatant Provocation" !
ReplyDeleteMoscow calls for UNSC meeting after Bucha video. But so far,no attempt were made to perform autopsy by Khareem Khan, the Senior Prosecutor of the ICC. As Scott Ritter said here in this short interview, "facts are not the friends" of the Ukrainians and the West, especially when inconvenient truths emerged, hence the more the water is muddied, the better !
Watch here the interview with Scott Ritter :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHYocJWT59k
Henceforth forevermore will be known in history as the Bucha Massacre.
ReplyDeleteAs claimed & promoted by a demoNcratic mfer of knowing-nothingness!
DeleteIf at all the Kremlin had been 'monstrous', they would have bombed Ukraine continuously for 60 days like the way the US bombed Iraq or Yugoslavia!
ReplyDelete