Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko handed him documents exposing the Bucha fake.
The documents in question, Putin explained, shed light on "who and how arrived in Bucha, and using what kind of transport" in order to "set up the conditions" to stage the provocation.
According to Putin, the Bucha provocation is similar to the claims made regarding the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria.
"I talked to colleagues from Western countries often. And when they say 'Bucha' to me, I ask, have you ever been to Raqqa? Did you see how this Syrian city was completely destroyed, down to the very ground, by American aircraft? And there, indeed, the corpses were laying and decomposing in the ruins for months. No one cared about it, nobody even noticed", Putin said.
The Bucha provocation has been condemned by Russia as an "outrageous" fake created solely with the purpose of slandering Moscow. According to Russia, the timeline of the Ukrainian allegations about the mass killing of civilians by Russian troops does not add up to the time when the troops actually left the city in the Kiev region. Moscow asserted that the Ukrainian forces shelled Bucha after the Russian withdrawal with rocket and tank fire.
The Russian president also said that Kiev had backed away from the agreements made in Istanbul, leading the talks into a deadlock. He condemned Kiev's inconsistency during the negotiations, saying that it is complicating the peace process.
Until final agreements acceptable to all parties are reached, Putin continued, the special military operation will go on until all the objectives are attained.
Speaking about the special military operation in Ukraine, Putin expressed gratitude to the Russian soldiers taking part in it and said that nothing should be concealed in the coverage of the operation, but the work has to be covered "objectively".
The Russian president additionally underlined that Moscow aims to achieve all of the objectives of the military operation while also maintining a minimum of losses. In order to do that, Russia will act "calmly" and according to its initial plan.