WASHINGTON, April 7. /TASS/. The Ukrainian authorities are stepping up a campaign to spread deliberately false accusations against the Russian military, which raises doubts about the sincerity of Kiev’s statements about their desire to seek ways to resolve the crisis through diplomacy, Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said on Wednesday. He was responding to a question from the American edition of Newsweek.

"Every day, the Ukrainian authorities are stepping up their anti-Russian misinformation campaign, throwing in unsubstantiated accusations of alleged atrocities and war crimes of the Russian Armed Forces. Judging by the rhetoric, the leadership of Ukraine is driven not so much by concern for the civilian population as by the desire to secure the image of a "victim" and discredit our country," he said as quoted on the embassy's Telegram channel.

"The reaction of some countries to the tragic events in the city of Bucha is surprising. Without bothering to understand what happened, colleagues blamed the Russian military for everything. Inconsistencies indicating the fabricated nature of the action are ignored. I would like to note that on March 31, the mayor of the city of Bucha [Anatoly] Fedoruk stated the withdrawal of Russian troops and did not say a word about the shot residents. The first accusations appeared in the Western media only on April 3. It seems unlikely that no one noticed the dead bodies lying on the streets for four days," the diplomat emphasized.

"On April 1, representatives of the Security Service of Ukraine and the national police came in. They announced their intention to clear the territory from Russian accomplices. Ukrainian radicals even called for the execution of ordinary citizens who do not have special identification marks," he said.

Antonov noted that "the Russian Defense Ministry also has evidence about the planned terrible crimes of the Ukrainian authorities in the Sumy and Kiev regions."

"We know for certain that the Kiev regime is preparing yet another provocative content about the death of civilians in the Kharkov region, allegedly as a result of the actions of the Russian Armed Forces. People are paid $25 for taking part in staged filming," he specified.

"All this is happening at the very moment when the Ukrainian side has expressed its readiness to reaffirm its non-nuclear, non-bloc and neutral status. For all countries, this is extremely important. In this context, the sincerity of Kiev's statements about the desire to seek ways to resolve the crisis diplomatically is highly questionable," the ambassador said.