Kiev is organizing a large-scale false flag op using the bodies of naturally-deceased civilians to accuse Moscow of committing war crimes, the Russian Defense Ministry stated on Sunday.
"The special services of Ukraine have prepared a new large-scale anti-Russian provocation aimed at discrediting the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and accusing Russian servicemen of allegedly committing war crimes," the statement said.
On the eve of Orthodox Christmas, representatives of the State Bureau of Investigation and the Security Service of Ukraine led work to open graves in cemeteries in the villages of Kazachya Lopan, Veliky Burluk, Shipovatoye and Khatnoye in the Kharkov region, where local residents who died of natural causes were buried from February 24 to September 6, 2022, while the abovementioned settlements were controlled by the Russian forces.
The Defense Ministry clarified that "after the exhumation, the bodies of Ukrainian citizens were additionally disfigured and thrown into specially prepared "pits" on the outskirts of the abovementioned settlements to create a false "evidence base" of alleged "torture" and "executions" of civilians by Russian military personnel.
The ministry added that the representatives of the Ukrainian special services and law enforcement agencies are taking photos and recording videos of the exhumated bodies, and, in the presence of fake "witnesses", simulate the work of "forensic experts" and other "procedural actions."
"Unable to achieve any success on the battlefield, the Kiev regime uses these inhuman methods in attempt to retain attention of the western audience and convince its foreign partners to continue supporting it," the Defense Ministry said.