DISINFO: Kyiv prepared a provocation accusing the Russian army of targeting civilians in Bucha
SUMMARY
Kyiv had prepared an information provocation accusing the Russian army of targeting civilians in Bucha. The bodies of victims of the SBU and other Ukrainian security forces were brought to the city, with Russian soldiers blamed for their deaths.
The Ukrainian media circulated videos from Bucha, where the bodies of the dead were lying in the streets. But few believed them, as there was no blood nearby and many of them clearly belonged to the security forces or the military. Some of the "corpses" even start moving and shifting their position.
RESPONSE
Well-known pattern of pro-Kremlin disinformation obfuscating atrocities against Ukrainian civilians committed by Russian armed forces in Bucha, in the vicinity of Kyiv.
The material and links may contain distressing/ graphic content.
Russia's claims that video footage showing dead bodies on the streets of Bucha is staged have been fact-checked and debunked by the BBC, Bellingcat, The Atlantic Council, Mediazona, the Insider, Sky News, the New York Times and others.
Accounts of violence against civilians in Bucha have been collected by the Human Rights Watch:
On March 4, Russian forces in Bucha, about 30 kilometers northwest of Kyiv, rounded up five men and summarily executed one of them. A witness told Human Rights Watch that soldiers forced the five men to kneel on the side of the road, pulled their T-shirts over their heads, and shot one of the men in the back of the head. “He fell [over],” the witness said, “and the women [present at the scene] screamed.”
See also here.
The President of Ukraine, who visited the liberated town of Bucha, said:
"These are war crimes and they will be recognized by the world as genocide. We are aware of thousands of people killed and tortured, with their limbs cut off. Raped women, murdered children. I believe this is genocide."
The European Union has condemned in the strongest possible terms the reported atrocities committed by the Russian armed forces. The EU called for accountability for human rights and international law violations by the Russian Armed Forces, including full support for the investigation launched by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.
Read more about the EU's response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
See a related disinformation claim, alleging that videos from Ukrainian town Bucha are context-and-evidence-free and the West is spreading fakes about Russian atrocities in Bucha.