MOSCOW, December 18. /TASS/. Russia was waiting for an investigation to be launched after the events in Bucha, at least to receive a list of the names of the dead, but nothing has been done, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.
"We were waiting for an investigation, because such a crime cannot be left without an investigation. We demanded [an investigation] from those who helped the Ukrainians find these bodies. No one told us anything," Lavrov said in an interview with the Great Game program on Channel One. "I have already appealed (at the UN Security Council meeting in September 2022 - TASS) to the authority of [UN] Secretary General Antonio Guterres, asking him to use this authority to at least get the names of those whose bodies were shown in Bucha. Nothing followed," the top Russian diplomat pointed out.
"I am sure that none of the Western journalists would dare to ask the relevant authorities of the Western governments to hand over the list. Maybe [American TV journalist] Tucker Carlson, but he is already on his own," the minister added.
Russian Investigative Committee Chairman Alexander Bastrykin said in April 2022 that a criminal investigation had been launched under Article 207.3 of the Russian Criminal Code ("Public Dissemination of False Information about the Use of the Russian Armed Forces") following a Ukrainian act of provocation in Bucha, a suburb of Kiev. He noted that the Ukrainian Defense Ministry had provided video footage purportedly taken in Bucha to Western media outlets, describing it as proof of mass civilian killings, in a bid to discredit the Russian Armed Forces. However, statements made by the mayor of Bucha on March 31, 2022, combined with other reports, have substantiated the fact that the Russian army pulled out of the town on March 30. Moreover, a video filmed by Ukrainians which surfaced on social media platforms immediately after the withdrawal of Russian troops made no mention at all of the alleged killing of civilians.