VIENNA, November 13. /TASS/. Ukrainian special services staged the false-flag provocation in Bucha in April 2022 jointly with Britain’s MI6 to disrupt the peace process between Moscow and Kiev and create a pretext for continued hostilities, said Dmitry Polyansky, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
According to him, by mid-March 2022, the Russian and Ukrainian delegations made progress at peace talks, a process that originated in Minsk and then continued in Istanbul. By that time, the parties had precoordinated a draft agreement that included mutually acceptable settlement principles. The Russian diplomat recalled that, as a goodwill gesture, Russia made the decision to withdraw its troops from Ukraine’s northern areas, including the Kiev Region where Bucha is located.
"The West did not seek peace," Polyansky said at a Bucha-themed roundtable organized by the Russia’s Permanent Mission to the OSCE. "It was seeking an emotional pretext that would convince the international community of the need to continue the hostilities. It is then that the idea of a heinous false-flag provocation in Bucha that was conducted by Ukrainian special services jointly with MI6 on April 2-3 was incepted," he argued.
That episode later became the starting point for attempts by the collective West to hold Russia responsible, Polyansky added.
On March 30, 2022, Russia pulled back from the town of Bucha and from Kiev’s vicinity as a goodwill gesture during negotiations with Ukraine in Istanbul. On March 31, the head of the local administration confirmed this before cameras. A few days later, Western television channels broadcast footage that showed dead bodies lying in the streets, in contrast to earlier recordings. In Russia, a criminal case was opened for the dissemination of false information about the Russian army.