LONDON, April 8. /TASS/. The events in the Ukrainian city of Bucha were a "well-staged insinuation," and the Russian troops have no relation to those events whatsoever, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Sky News in an interview.
"This whole situation in Bucha is a well-staged insinuation, nothing else. Those poor people <…> were not victims of the Russian military," he said, adding that Moscow was interested in a fair investigation of all possible war crimes in Ukraine.
At the same time, the spokesman added, Russia had testimony from residents of Bucha and Mariupol, who reported of brutal crimes, such as torture, committed by Ukrainian nationalists.
On April 3, the Russian Defense Ministry dismissed accusations by the Kiev regime of killing civilians in Bucha. The ministry said that the Russian army had left Bucha on March 30, while "evidence of alleged crimes" appeared only on the fourth day, after Ukrainian security service SBU operatives arrived in the city. The Russian Defense Ministry also stressed that on March 31 the mayor of Bucha, Anatoly Fedoruk, in his video message confirmed that there were no Russian military personnel in the city, without mentioning any local residents allegedly shot on the streets. The Russian side has repeatedly stressed that the situation in Bucha was a fake.