WASHINGTON, April 4. /TASS/. The photos and videos from the Ukrainian town of Bucha that have been posted by the Kiev authorities are "context-and-evidence-free," American journalist and lawyer Glenn Greenwald, who assisted whistleblower Edward Snowden in leaking information about global public surveillance programs, wrote on Twitter.
"It's very alarming watching people who should know better see a few photo and video snippets posted by one of the governments fighting the war, then let their valid emotional revulsion lead them to proclaim it's time for WW3. Nobody is immune to social media's manipulations," Greenwald pointed out, commenting on calls made by some US media outlets in connection with the videos, which, according to Kiev, prove Russian troops’ crimes in Bucha.
"In stark contrast to the Twitter experts eager to start WW3 by emotionally demanding that the US go to war with Russia due to horrifying yet context-and-evidence-free photos and videos posted by Ukrainian officials, the NYT [New York Times] commendably applies skepticism," the journalist added. The New York Times said in its article that "it was unable to independently verify the assertions of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry and other officials."
"If the last 20 years taught us anything, it's that monstrous outcomes are inevitable when war propaganda cannot be questioned or challenged, and when neocons are permitted to lead foreign policy debates with no dissent. Smear away. It's everyone's obligation not to allow that," Greenwald said.
"To put things in some perspective, the official civilian death toll after the first 6-8 weeks of the US invasion of Iraq was more than 8,000 - due to ‘Shock and Awe. The civilian death toll in Ukraine is just over 1,000. It's all hideous, but calls for WW3 require sobriety," he stressed. "If I had one political wish, it'd be that all wars — especially those waged by the US and its allies — received the same amount and type of media attention as what Ukraine is getting, and their war victims received the same empathy. The world would look very different," the American journalist emphasized.
"I realize dissent from the latest maximalist war calls results in accusations that one is pro-Putin, trying to justify the invasion, etc. Social media makes that tactic easy. Opposing WW3 doesn't make you a Kremlin agent," Greenwald stressed.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday that the Russian Armed Forces had left Bucha, located in the Kiev region, on March 30, while "the evidence of crimes" emerged only four days later, after Ukrainian Security Service officers had arrived in the town. The ministry stressed that on March 31, the town’s Mayor Anatoly Fedoruk had confirmed in a video address that there were no Russian troops in Bucha. However, he did not say a word about civilians shot dead on the street with their hands tied behind their backs.