Russia to continue pushing for UNSC meeting on Bucha

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As the world continues to support Ukraine due to the West and western media siding with the latter, Russia's deputy envoy to the United Nations, Dmitry Polyanskiy, said Monday his country would continue pushing for holding a UN Security Council meeting to discuss the latest round of provocations carried out by the Ukrainian armed forces despite the United Kingdom tugging the other end of the rope in a bid to obstruct Moscow.

"It's hard to imagine and apprehend, but the UK presidency of the UN Security Council, which has just started tries to deny our right to request a separate meeting of the Council on heinous Ukrainian provocation in Bucha," Ployanskiy said.

"We asked for it to take place at 15.00 [19:00 GMT] on Monday 4 April, 24hrs in advance of the planned meeting in full respect with SC rules of procedure," the Russian diplomat explained on Telegram.

He accused his British counterparts of "dissolve[ing] through baseless procedural pretexts" Russia's request for a separate meeting on Ukraine and its provocations.

"They clearly want to avoid us raising this issue separately, which will cause reputational damage to Western countries who have already accused Russia of murdering civilians in Bucha," he stressed, in a nod to the West backing Ukraine after it published footage it claimed showed evidence of crimes committed by the Russian armed forces in Bucha, a town in Kiev, and the Russian Ministry of Defense said they were yet another provocation.

The ministry also clarified that all Russian units completely withdrew from the town in which the crimes allegedly took place as early as March 30, a day ahead of the talks between Moscow and Kiev in Turkey.

"This will not work, and the world should learn the truth. We will insist that the meeting takes place on Monday as we requested," he stressed.

Russia's Ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, had said that with regards to the shelling of Bucha, Ukraine's authorities are shifting the blame, as the civilian casualties may have occurred as a result of an attack by Ukrainian forces.

The US is being deliberately silent on the fact that the shelling of the city happened at the hands of Ukrainian forces after the pullout of Russia's forces from the city, he added.

Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the photo and video footage disseminated by Ukraine depicting dead civilians on the streets of Bucha could not be trusted, adding that the information on the matter should be seriously questioned.

"We categorically reject any accusations. Moreover, we believe that this topic should be discussed at the highest possible level, so there was an initiative to consider this topic, our initiative to consider the topic in the Security Council. We know that this initiative was blocked," he said.