DISINFO: Bucha was staged by the West and Ukraine with Goebbels techniques

DISINFORMATION CASE DETAILS

DISINFO: Bucha was staged by the West and Ukraine with Goebbels techniques

SUMMARY

On March 30, 2022, the Russian army left Bucha, 30 km from Kiev. The following day, Ukrainian forces, including fighters from the Nationalist Azov Battalion, entered the town. It was not until the fifth day after the Russian troops had withdrawn that dozens of Western journalists entered the town. Images were quickly broadcast on TV, showing what would later be called the Bucha massacre. [...] we can see that they coordinated their work with Western supervisors, because everyone says “Oh, there are corpses everywhere, it's a massacre" [...].

One understands who was responsible for these crimes, it was the Ukrainian death squads. All Western media were brandishing satellite photos showing several bodies, saying “Look, corpses lying on the road.” But who knows where they came from? No proof, no investigation. Who's to blame? Russia, of course!

Joseph Goebbels once said, “A lie repeated a thousand times becomes the truth”. It's his most famous aphorism. In fact, this principle still works and is still used, including by the Ukrainian Centre for Psychological and Media operations.

RESPONSE

Recurring disinformation narrative from pro-Kremlin outlets, denying war crimes committed by Russian forces during their full-scale military invasion of Ukraine. The film produced by RT portrays the Western information sphere as controlled by the CIA, suggesting it manipulates public opinion against Russia in a manner reminiscent of propaganda tactics used by the Third Reich.

The Bucha massacre was investigated by the Ukrainian prosecutor's office, the UN, the New York Times, the Associated Press, the non-governmental organisation Amnesty International and the International Criminal Court investigation in Ukraine. A lot of material, evidence and testimonies were published and are openly accessible to the public.

The Bucha massacre against Ukrainian civilians was committed by Russian troops at the beginning of Russia's unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine. Along with Bucha, Russian forces occupied several other towns and villages near Kyiv and committed similar crimes, including maltreatment of civilians, rape, extra-judicial executions and other atrocities. The evidence includes survivors’ testimonies, reports by Ukrainian and Western journalists, investigations from several human rights organisations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, and satellite images.

In December 2022, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights presented a report about killings, summary executions and attacks on civilians in the north of Ukraine, which contained a detailed description of human rights violations in the initial months of Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine.

The European Union has condemned in the strongest possible terms these atrocities committed by the Russian armed forces and called for accountability for human rights and international law violations by the Russian Armed Forces. The EU also imposed sanctions individuals and entities in response to the Bucha massacre.

See our article The Bucha massacre: mapping a year of Kremlin denial as well as related cases: As in Bucha, Ukraine kills its own citizens in Sumy to attract international attention, or Bucha was a macabre fabricated show to justify the war, or The so-called ‘Bucha massacre’ appears to have been fabricated, or Russia is wrongly blamed for the staged massacre in Bucha , or Bucha was a setup organised by MI6.

Disclaimer

Cases in the EUvsDisinfo database focus on messages in the international information space that are identified as providing a partial, distorted, or false depiction of reality and spread key pro-Kremlin messages. This does not necessarily imply, however, that a given outlet is linked to the Kremlin or editorially pro-Kremlin, or that it has intentionally sought to disinform. EUvsDisinfo publications do not represent an official EU position, as the information and opinions expressed are based on media reporting and analysis of the East Stratcom Task Force.

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