Putin denies accusations of ‘Bucha massacre’

“Allegations related to Bucha are made up like what happened in Syria”, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a press conference with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko at the Vostochny cosmodrome, in the Far East on April 12.

Putin mentioned accusations made by Russia that foreign intelligence orchestrated chemical weapons attacks in Syria in 2018 and then blamed it on the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. “A campaign of psychological warfare waged by the British,” Lukashenko added.

The comments by the leaders of Russia and Belarus come after Ukraine last week accused the Russian military of “massacre of civilians” that killed around 400 people in Bucha, a town northwest of the capital Kiev, and asked the community to international investigation into “war crimes”.

Western countries called the incident in Bucha an act “like genocide” and pledged to impose more sanctions on Moscow. Russia on April 7 announced its withdrawal from the Human Rights Council, after the United Nations General Assembly voted to pass a resolution to suspend the country’s membership.

Russia believes that the “staged” images of the bodies in Bucha are created to create a pretext for a series of tougher sanctions against Moscow as well as to hinder negotiations with Kiev. Putin accused Ukraine of being behind the “crude and unethical” provocations in Bucha.

“I still regularly communicate with colleagues in the West. When they mentioned ‘Bucha’, I asked: ‘Have you been to Raqqa? Have you seen this Syrian city completely flattened by the US Air Force? How are you all?’ The bodies there decomposed in the rubble for months, but no one cared,” Putin said.

He also accused the West of mass killing civilians in Afghanistan, but no one spoke up.

“But there is no such silence when they carry out staged provocations in Syria, when they imagine the Assad regime’s use of chemical weapons. It’s all fake in the end. , just like in Bucha,” Putin emphasized.

The Russian president said that Belarusian intelligence agencies had provided Russia with documents proving that the killings of civilians in Bucha, which the West considers a “massacre”, were staged. However, he did not provide details about these documents.

“What is happening in Ukraine is tragic, but they don’t give us any other choice,” Putin said, adding that Russia’s military goals were “absolutely clear and lofty.” President Putin also affirmed that the West “cannot” isolate Russia with sanctions.

Ukraine and the US, UK have not commented on Mr. Putin’s statement.

The United Nations estimates that at least 1,842 civilians have been killed and 2,493 wounded in Ukraine since Russia’s military operation began on February 24, but warns the actual number could be higher. About 4.6 million people have been evacuated to other countries and millions have been displaced from their homes in Ukraine.

Huyen Le (According to RT, Politico)