Zelensky Says Senior European Politician Asked Him If Bucha Provocation Was Staged

“Show us evidence that it wasn’t staged,” Zelensky said, quoting the official, in an interview with Bild.

The Ukrainian president did not reveal which politician made the request, except to say that it wasn’t German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and characterized the comments themselves as vile.

“That’s what a European leader told you?!” his interviewer interjected.

“Yes, I cannot say who,” Zelensky said.

“But it wasn’t Scholz, that’s true,” Zelensky answered.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell visited Bucha on Friday, posing for photo opportunities in front of black body bags put out on display in a field.

“We have seen the cruel face of Putin’s army. We have seen the recklessness and cold-heartedness with which they have been occupying the city…The whole world is mourning with the people of Bucha,” von der Leyen said.

Moscow has vocally dismissed claims that its troops committed the crimes, calling the West’s allegations a “monstrous forgery”, and pointing out that the timeline of Ukrainian claims of mass killing of civilians by Russian troops don’t line up with the time of their withdrawal from Bucha.

The Russian MoD said its forces had left the suburb on March 30 as Ukrainian forces shelled it with artillery, tank fire and multiple launch rocket systems.

A cursory forensic analysis of Ukrainian officials’ social media pages and Ukrainian media appears to corroborate the MoD’s position. On March 31, Bucha Mayor Anatoliy Fedoruk announced on his Facebook page that the town had been fully “liberated” “from Russian orcs, from Russian occupiers”, making no mention of any atrocities against civilians.

On April 2, Ukraine’s National Police entered the town, and filmed a video showing damage to local infrastructure, crumpled cars, destroyed buildings, and one casualty in a vehicle but no bodies shown strewn along the roads –which would appear in the famous footage released later by the Ukrainian military.

Also on April 3, the New York Times and other media reported in their live update reporting that the neo-Nazi Azov Regiment fighters had entered the town along with units of the Kiev Territorial Defence Force.

Shortly after, Ukraine’s Defence Ministry accused Russian forces of executing civilians, releasing the horrifying footage of corpses strewn along roads which went viral and been used extensively by Western outlets as evidence of “Russian war crimes”.