Kiev's Bucha Provocation Aimed at Disrupting Peace Talks & Prolonging Conflict, Observers Say
19:58 GMT 04.04.2022 (Updated: 20:00 GMT 04.04.2022)
© AP Photo / Efrem Lukatsky
Subscribe
The Western media is continuing to peddle the uncorroborated "Bucha massacre" story with Russia being branded as the culprit while emerging evidence indicates that the incident is nothing but yet another provocation by the Ukrainian military and nationalists.
"I have personally viewed the video entitled 'Boatsman Boys Work in Bucha'," says former US Senate candidate and investigative journalist Mark Dankof, who refers to Kiev's claims of Russia being involved in the killing of civilians in Bucha as "a classic case of what in our business is fairly classified as false flag agitation-propaganda."
In the video, released by one of the Kiev territorial defence battalion leaders, a Ukrainian fighter is heard asking whether they can shoot people without blue armbands. The other one responds: "F***, of course!" A blue armband is an identifier of Ukrainian forces, while a white one is worn by the Russian military and pro-Russia individuals.
The leader of the Kiev battalion who uploaded the video has been identified as Sergei Korotkikh, also known as "Boatsman." Belarus-born Korotkikh is a radical right activist and an ex-commander of the Ukrainian neo-Nazi Azov Battalion, which was accused of atrocities against Donbass civilians by the UN. Furthermore, the Ukrainian National Police on 2 April published a post on social media announcing the special forces' operation aimed at "cleaning up the town of Bucha."
A screenshot from a video from the Ukrainian city of Bucha showing a body with a white bandage
Remarkably, the footage and photos of corpses lying in the streets in Bucha, which are circulated by the Western press as "evidence" of Russia's "atrocities," show some corpses either having white bandages or no insignia.
It is very significant that the Ukrainian National Police provided a detailed video of a "clean up" operation in Bucha the day before videos and photographs of the "massacre" went viral, according to Nick Griffin, a British politician who represented North West England as a member of the European Parliament from 2009 to 2014.
"This fits with the detail of the white armbands on so many of the corpses in the street and found bound and tortured in basements," says Griffin. "It all points towards the real perpetrators of this appalling war crime as being Ukrainian forces, and suggests that the killings were done some 48 hours after the Russian troops were deployed out of the area."
The Russian Ministry of Defence resolutely refuted Kiev's allegations and cited facts debunking the Bucha narrative spread by the Ukrainian authorities. The Russian MoD pointed out that all Russian units withdrew completely from Bucha as early as 30 March, while on 31 March Mayor of Bucha Anatoliy Fedoruk confirmed in a video message that there were no Russian servicemen in the town, not mentioning any "atrocities" allegedly committed by Russians or instances of civilians shot in the streets.
Soldiers walk amid destroyed Russian tanks in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, April 3, 2022.
© AP Photo / Rodrigo Abd
"It is not surprising, therefore, that all the so-called 'evidence of crimes' in Bucha did not emerge until the fourth day, when the Security Service of Ukraine and representatives of Ukrainian media arrived in the town," the Russian MoD wrote in Telegram.
In addition to that, the MoD has drawn attention to the fact that all the bodies of the people whose images have been published by the Ukrainian government "are not stiffened after at least four days, have no typical cadaver stains, and the wounds contain unconsumed blood."
The MoD pointed out that not a single Bucha resident had suffered from any violent action when the town had been under Russian military control, adding that humanitarian corridors remained open. The Russian armed forces delivered and distributed 452 tonnes of humanitarian aid to civilians in the Kiev region, including Bucha. At the same time, however, the Ukrainian Army uninterruptedly shelled at the southern outskirts of Bucha with large-caliber artillery, tanks and multiple launch rocket systems, according to the Russian MoD.
Why Has the Western Press Bought into Bucha Provocation?
The Western press started to circulate the "Russia did it" narrative before any results of post-mortem examinations of the deceased were released or an inquiry into the matter was launched in Bucha. The willingness of the mainstream media to peddle uncorroborated reports is a pattern with which the public has become very familiar since the beginning of the special operation, according to Nick Griffin.
"From the Snake Island 'heroes' to the 'bombing' of the hospital in Mariupol, the mainstream media have established a track record of uncritically regurgitating every wild claim put out by Kiev, then simply ignoring the facts when the truth finally comes out," the former MEP says. "Sometimes, they even admit that they were wrong, but simultaneously claim that it makes no difference, or try to distract public attention with yet another fake atrocity."
According to Griffin, the Ukrainian provocation in Bucha is "the most blatant attempt so far by the Western intelligence services and their mass media collaborators to inflame public opinion against Russia" in order to "build support for pouring even more tax money into the gigantic arms shipments needed to prolong the war."
"The readiness of the Western media and politicians to present such an obvious false flag atrocity as 'evidence' of Russian brutality also tells us a great deal about the contempt in which the media and political elite hold ordinary people," the British politician points out. "They are clearly confident that the massive censorship of social media platforms and of pro-Russian voices means that their latest round of fakery will not be challenged."
The head of the 'Servant of the People' faction in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Davyd Arakhamia, left, and Russian Presidential Aide Vladimir Medinsky, right, are seen at the table during the Russian-Ukrainian talks at the Dolmabahce Palace, in Istanbul, Turkey
© Sputnik / Sergey Karpuhin
/ What's worse, in the absence of an impartial verification the mediatisation of this event tends to deal a heavy blow to the negotiation between Kiev and Moscow underway and throws the prospects of an agreement into question, warns Tiberio Graziani, chairman at Vision & Global Trends, International Institute for Global Analyses.
"It feeds the interests of those who want the conflict to last over time and supports, in the West, the sending of weapons to Ukraine," Graziani says.
Following the Ukrainian provocation in Bucha, Volodymyr Zelensky told the press that the situation made possible negotiations with Russia "harder than they already were," as quoted by the Independent.
For his part, Polish President Andrzej Duda tweeted on 4 April that Ukraine needs "weapons, weapons and more weapons" and that Kiev should not "seek compromise [with Russia] at any cost." Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron has called for new sanctions against Russia.
The Russian Federation has repeatedly requested that the UN Security Council convene in connection with the provocation of the Ukrainian military and radicals in the city of Bucha.
"The meaning of the next crime of the 'Kiev regime' is the disruption of peace negotiations and the escalation of violence," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova noted on Telegram. On 4 April, the UK blocked both Russia's requests for the urgent meeting on the Bucha provocation in the UN Security Council.
