Zakharova blasts global media for pinning Bucha on Russia without proof
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has noted that she does not separate the provocation from "the information support of American and Western media machines."
Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Sputnik that a mass worldwide hype was paraded out over Bucha, Ukraine, where a criminal provocation took place.
"All of the international mainstream’s energies, including US web platforms <...> were used to spin stories related to the town of Bucha and that criminal provocation that was implemented there," the spokeswoman said.
The spokeswoman highlighted that the Bucha incident had crossed all bounds since it was done on purpose. Such actions, she claims, were premeditated rather than undertaken "in the heat of passion."
"These are not simply pictures, not just photographs - these are the photographs depicting people who really died. How they turned up on these streets, who killed them, how it turned out that after this, the town’s leadership and its residents who own mobile phones and have the means of direct communication with people from other cities and countries, for several days were saying that their lives were carrying on as usual - how after this all of this happened and who did it - this, of course, demands the most serious answer. Because we’ve seen many scary things from the Ukrainian Army, the Security Service of Ukraine, national battalions, and [their] death squads."
According to Zakharova, the Bucha incident is a criminal act, not only committed by those who killed the residents, but by the string-pullers in the West who used their information tools.
Russia MoD denies Kiev allegation of civilian killings in Bucha
Days ago, Ukraine published footage it claimed shows 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.
"All photos and video materials published by the Kiev regime allegedly testifying to some ‘crimes’ committed by Russian soldiers in the town of Bucha, Kiev region, is another provocation," Moscow's Defense Ministry said.
"Not a single local resident has suffered from any violent actions while the Russian armed forces controlled the settlement," it added.
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.
Russia to reiterate request on Bucha UNSC meeting
After the United Kingdom refused to hold a meeting at the UN Security Council to discuss Ukraine's Bucha situation, the Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova stated on Monday that Moscow is to reiterate its request.
Russia requested a Security Council session tomorrow to discuss what it described as a provocation by Ukrainian extremists in the Ukrainian town of Bucha.
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.
This would not be the first violation committed by the Ukrainian side in Mariupol, as the Azov battalion, a notorious far-right neo-Nazi group, opened fire on civilians during their evacuation from the city, killing at least two people and injuring four others.
Kiev had previously claimed that hospitals in this city had been the target of Russian attacks, but the allegations were proven false.
Russian First Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dmitry Polyanskiy revealed that the allegations were false, and he reminded the United Nations that Moscow had warned that the hospital the allegations were surrounding had become a military site at the hands of radicals.
The Russian Investigative Committee had opened Saturday a criminal case against Ukrainian militants and mercenaries over their holding of hostages in a maternity hospital in Mariupol.