Moscow Comments on Bucha War Crimes Claims

By Staff, Agencies

Ukrainian allegations that Russian troops were involved in war crimes in the city of Bucha near Kiev are not true, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday. The claims need to be properly investigated and not taken at face value by foreign leaders, he suggested.

Information provided by the Ukrainian side “should be subject to serious skepticism,” the official said of the allegations made by Kiev. He then added that Russian military specialists found evidence of video manipulation and other forms of fabrication coming from Bucha.

“The facts and the timeline likewise speak against the veracity of the claims,” he added.

In the same respect, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday that Ukraine's version of what happened in the town of Bucha was a "fake attack" aimed at undermining Moscow, the TASS news agency reported.

Ukrainian authorities said on Sunday they were investigating alleged crimes by Russian forces after finding hundreds of bodies strewn around towns like Bucha outside the capital Kiev after the Russian withdrawal from the area.

Lavrov said the dead bodies were "staged" and that images of them and Ukraine's false version of events had been spread on social media by Western countries and Ukraine.

Russia's top diplomat also called on Britain, which holds the presidency of the UN Security Council for April, to fulfil its responsibilities in that role after it rejected a Russian request to convene a meeting over Bucha.

Bucha, a small city northwest of Ukraine, had been under the control of Russian troops since late February, when Moscow launched its military campaign against its neighbor. The Russian forces withdrew last week, after progress was made in Russia-Ukraine peace talks.

Days later, Ukrainian officials claimed that Russian troops were guilty of war crimes allegedly committed against civilians living in Bucha. They claimed some non-combatants were summarily executed before the withdrawal and otherwise deliberately targeted by Russian soldiers in what Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba described as “genocide.”

The Russian military denied the accusations on Sunday and said the evidence provided by Ukraine and by media outlets friendly to Kiev came days after the Russian troops withdrew. The city mayor failed to mention any atrocities as he celebrated the Russian pullout on March 31, the ministry pointed out.

Moscow launched a special military operation in Ukraine in late February, following the latter’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements signed in 2014, and Russia’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics in Donetsk and Lugansk.

Russia has now demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO bloc.