Kremlin: Bucha massacre staged to denigrate Russian army

The events in Ukrainian Bucha are an act of forgery, the purpose of which is to denigrate the Russian army, Kremlin's official spokesman Dmitry Peskov said during the press briefing, RBC reports.

According to Peskov, this is a well-directed tragic show.

"This is an act of forgery in order to try to denigrate the Russian army,” the presidential spokesman said, stressing that any accusations against the Russian military were groundless.

When asked whether Russia is interested in participating in the investigation into the events in Bucha, Peskov said that one should first think to which extent such an investigation could be unbiased, neutral and impartial.

"We urge, first of all, members of the Security Council, Western leaders to abstract from the groundless emotional perception, think with their heads and try to compare facts in order to understand what a monstrous act o forgery we are dealing with,” Peskov told reporters.

Photos and videos from the towns of Bucha and Irpin in the Kiev region were distributed by the Ukrainian authorities and Reuters, AFP and the BBC journalists on April 3. The photos show mass graves and dead bodies on the streets, some have their hands tied behind their backs. Bucha mayor Anatoliy Fedoruk told AFP that those people were shot dead, whereas 280 others were buried in mass graves, he said.

The Russian Defense Ministry called the published footage a provocation. Representatives for the ministry said that during the time when Bucha was under the control of the Russian military, not a single local resident suffered from any violent actions, while the Ukrainian military were shelling the southern districts of the city around the clock.

Also read: What happened in Bucha and who is going to be punished for that?