Russia rejects Ukraine war-crimes allegations as provocations

The Russian military said in a statement on Sunday that the claims have been raised by Ukraine itself, some Western media outlets and human rights groups, after Moscow had withdrawn its troops from the outskirts of Ukraine’s capital.

All photographs and video materials published by the Kiev regime, allegedly showing some kind of "crimes" by Russian military personnel in the town of Bucha, Kyiv region, are yet another provocation,” the Russian Ministry of Defense said Sunday, according to Russia Today.

Russian troops had been pulled out from the area on March 30, the military said, pointing out that “the so-called ‘evidence of crimes’ in Bucha appeared only on the fourth day” after the withdrawal when Ukrainian intelligence and “representatives of Ukrainian television arrived in the town.”

Moreover, on March 31 the mayor of Bucha, Anatoly Fedoruk, confirmed in his video address that there was no Russian military in the town, but did not even mention any local residents laying shot in the streets with their hands tied,” the Russian military also pointed out.

“It’s particularity concerning that all the bodies of people whose images were published by the Kyiv regime, after at least four days, have not stiffened, do not have characteristic cadaveric spots, and have fresh blood in their wounds,” the military noted, adding that all these inconsistencies show that the whole Bucha affair “has been staged by the Kyiv regime for Western media, as was the case with the [fake news from the] Mariupol maternity clinic.”

Graphic footage from Bucha shows multiple bodies in civilian clothing lying in the middle of a street. Some of the 'dead' apparently had their hands tied, while others were white armbands, commonly used by Russian forces and civilians in areas under Russian control.

Kyiv has blamed the Bucha killings on Moscow, its foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba claiming it was a "deliberate massacre" by Russian troops.

“The Bucha massacre was deliberate. Russians aim to eliminate as many Ukrainians as they can. We must stop them and kick them out. I demand new, devastating G7 sanctions NOW,” Kuleba wrote on Twitter.

KI/PR