A family grieves for a missing relative in front of a mass grave in the town of Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, April 03, 2022. (PNarciso Contreras/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Unraveling viral disinformation and explaining where it came from, the harm it's causing, and what we should do about it.
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In a video message posted on social media on Sunday night, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he wanted Russian citizens to see the atrocities, and called what happened in Bucha a genocide.“I want every mother of every Russian soldier to see the bodies of the dead,” Zelenskyy said.But just as it did in the aftermath of the bombing of a maternity hospital in Mariupol, Russian state-controlled media is telling their viewers that the victims in Bucha are crisis actors. It’s a tactic that the Kremlin has used for a decade about atrocities committed in Syria, meaning many Russian citizens are primed to believe such claims.
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Bucha’s mayor Anatoly Fedoruk has said that 280 bodies were buried in a mass grave in the town, though journalists on the group were unable to verify that figure independently, they did observe dozens of bodies buried at the site.
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Associated Press journalists reported that nine bodies, all dressed in civilian clothes, were scattered around a site that residents said Russian troops used as a base. Most of them appeared to have been shot at close range and at least two had their hands tied behind their backs.The Kremlin has attempted to frame its withdrawal from Bucha not as a failure to advance on the capital Kyiv but as a planned retreat to focus on fighting in the east of the country. In reality, as Russian troops attempted to move through Bucha on their way to Kyiv, they were met with unexpected resistance from Ukrainian troops. The BBC reported that Ukrainian troops used drones to take out the lead and rear vehicles in the column of Russian troops, trapping all others—who were then ambushed by Ukrainian troops that reportedly included territorial defense volunteers.The images emerging from Bucha in recent days have led to a fresh wave of outrage and calls for tougher sanctions from the West. French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday that there is “clear evidence of war crimes” in Bucha.
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