'Don't Be So Naive': Netizens Divided After Bucha Video Appears to Show 'Dead Body' Moving Its Hand
02:07 GMT 04.04.2022 (Updated: 12:56 GMT 14.04.2023)
© Photo : Twitter / @JuliaDavisNews
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Photos and videos of alleged dead civilians lying in the streets of Bucha, Ukraine's Kiev region, according to Moscow, are "another production of the Kiev regime for the Western media," given that the Russian forces left the city on March 30, and nobody seems to have reported any dead bodies lying around for four days.
On Sunday, videos and images from the small Ukrainian town of Bucha in the Kiev region showing the aftermath of alleged mass executions of civilians went viral on social media.
According to the Ukrainian authorities and the nation's media, which have distributed footage of people allegedly shot in Bucha, numbers of civilians were shot dead and left scattered across the area as the Ukrainian military entered the city. Kiev rushed to accuse Russia of committing "genocide," referring to it as a "New Srebrenica," in an apparent reference to the 1995 massacre in the Bosnian war.
Meanwhile, the shocking footage was quickly picked up by nearly all mainstream Western media.
However, one of the videos that went viral, taken from the passenger seat of a car, showing bodies lying on a suburban road, has riveted the attention of social media users. The clip appears to show one of the corpses in the right corner of the frame quickly raising a hand from the ground just as the car is seen passing by the area.
Horrific scenes from the Ukrainian city of Bucha. Bodies of civilians massacred by Russian troops are scattered all over the city.#StandWithUkraine
— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) April 2, 2022
pic.twitter.com/aSzBtvPzZD
Some users expressed the opinion that the credibility of the video is highly questionable due to the alleged movement of one corpse's hand at around the 9-second mark, whereas others also moved to flag a particular scene in the second part of the video. As it happens, the reflection from the car's side mirror also appears to capture what is believed to be a corpse near the footpath standing up after the vehicle drives past. The incident can be viewed at about the 47 second mark.
"This "killed civilians" it's staged. Now I'm sure of it. F. nyt," wrote one user, while another attached a cut from the video with a "hand movement".
Per l'esattezza, a #Bucha abbiamo un presunto cadavere che muove il braccio destro ed un altro che si sta alzando dopo il passaggio dei militari. pic.twitter.com/e9pRxWJrck
— Svero (@Svero__) April 3, 2022
"Ukraine gov are known for putting out fake bs, even using video game footage.. I can't believe anyone trusts them.. sympathise with victims of war, but don't be so naive to believe a desperate government who's trying to push us into WW3," said another netizen.
However, other users noted that the alleged "hand movement" of the corpse lying on the side of the road is nothing more than a stain of dirt or a drop of water on the windshield. At the same time, the second corpse, presumably "standing up" in the reflection of the side mirror, is nothing more than the usual distortion of the image by this mirror.
In normal quality, it is obvious that this is dirt on the glass pic.twitter.com/dPpYj073V1
— Denis Z (@zarytskyid) April 3, 2022
"Seems like the water on the windscreen and the movement of the car, creates an optical illusion," one offered their opinion on. "Much like when you sit in the front seat on top deck of a bus, and it looks like your hitting all the cars etc as you drive by."
Doubts Cast as Ukrainian Police Announced 'Cleansing' Operation in Bucha the Day Before
Raising red flags, netizens also appeared to doubt the content after it was reported that militants of the nationalist battalions began to "sweep" Bucha about a day before the video documenting the dead emerged online. The so-called 'clean-up' effort was further sown by reports from the Ukrainian media and official authorities of the National Police of Ukraine.
According to the National Police of Ukraine in social networks, on Saturday, April 2, the special forces "began a cleansing of the city of Bucha." And on Sunday evening, after the completion of the operation, the police published its video.
According to the police statement, the “cleansing” meant the extermination of "saboteurs" and residents who collaborated with the Russian military. It is noteworthy that apart from the wrecked cars, the wreckage and the stories of local residents, not a single body is visible on the footage.
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© Photo : Twitter
One of the Twitterians wondered in the comment section of the video showing "atrocities" committed by Russians, as the reporter who posted it suggested.
"'Massacred by Russian troops,'" they wrote. "Evidence for this claim please that isn't taken on trust of the people who brought us the Ghost of Kiev, the heroes of snake island, and countless tortured pows and civilians?"
Journalist Mark Ames, meanwhile, wondered why the New York Times, which previously noted the extremist views of Ukrainian nationalists, eventually stopped calling the militants of the neo-Nazi Azov battalion even "far-right," instead calling them "soldiers" in reports from Bucha.
One user also advised to pay attention to the presence of Russian army rations among the dead residents.
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© Photo : Twitter
Also on Sunday, the Russian Defense Ministry called the video staged, pointing out that "not a single" civilian had been hurt in Bucha while the Russian forces were present. It also said that all military units left the city on March 30, the day after the negotiations between representatives of Moscow and Kiev in Istanbul.
Moreover, as Ukrainian outlets and official social media account for the local Ukrainian authorities showed that on March 31, Bucha's mayor Anatoly Fedoruk, confirmed in the video message that there were no Russian soldiers in the city. Additionally, he did not mention that any local residents were shot in the streets with their hands tied, despite to what Kiev started claiming on Sunday.
According to the MoD, there was no "surprise" that such "evidence" of the purported crimes would appear four days after the Russian forces left, as the Ukrainian security service's officers and the country's TV reporters entered the city.
The military emphasized that as it can be seen in the video and in some images, the bodies of people which have purportedly been lying on the streets for at least four days, have not stiffen, nor did they have characteristic livor mortis spots, and there was uncongealed blood in the wounds on the bodies.
Provocations to Go On?
Earlier, experts asserted that such a "false flag operation" is deliberately used by Kiev to whip up militant sentiments at home and abroad in order to blame Russia. Some of them said that with Ukraine accusing Russia of "genocide" and "massacre" in Bucha, the Western media, as well as some of the Western leaders, are willing to instantly criminalize Moscow without a proper investigation; and the media purportedly appears to be a tool for the West to compensate for frustrations generated by its own propaganda failures, such as the debunked "Ghost of Kiev" and Mariupol's maternity ward bombing.
For more than a month since the start of the special military operation in Ukraine, the Russian Defense Ministry has repeatedly drawn attention to the terrorist methods of warfare by the Kiev troops and the special cruelty towards the civilian population, suspected of sympathy for Russia.
At the same time, a number of Ukrainian politicians, journalists and officials have repeatedly called on social media for the killings of all Russians, the torture of Russian prisoners of war and even their castration as "subhumans." Officially, Kiev, as usual, does not comment on such calls from its representatives.
