The underside of the infox, the chronicle

Boutcha massacre: Russian disinformation put to the test

Audio 03:48

Several bodies, in civilian clothes, in a street in Boutcha, near kyiv, on April 2.

REUTERS - ZOHRA BENSEMRA

By: Sophie Malibeaux |

Gregory Genevrier Follow

6 mins

In Boutcha, Ukraine, it is time to identify the hundreds of victims discovered a week after the liberation of the city by the Ukrainian army.

The proofs and testimonies on the exactions of the Russian soldiers accumulate.

However, Moscow denies en bloc, helped by disinformation on social networks.

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The thesis of a staging of the massacre perpetrated in Boutcha, a town of 37,000 inhabitants located northwest of kyiv, continues to spread on social networks.

Dozens of corpses littering the streets, mass graves, or even the testimonies of civilians, everything would be a fabrication on the part of the Ukrainian government.

This would aim to justify new sanctions against Russia, the expulsion of hundreds of Russian diplomats in Europe and to derail the ongoing negotiations.  

Moscow dictates its version of the facts

This narrative is the main defense of the Russian government, which denies any involvement of its army in these acts of barbarism, potential war crimes.

As of Sunday April 3, the spokesperson for the Kremlin, Dmitri Peskov, speaks of a “ 

 ”, or even of a “ 

 ”.

He denounces, like Vladimir Putin after him, a “ 

 ” from Ukraine.

According to the Kremlin, “ 

 ”.

" 

 , ”added the spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, this Wednesday, April 6.

This version, contrary to reality, was automatically taken up by the traditional actors of the conspiracy, and relayed by so-called “ 

 ” media, pro-Putin voices and ultra-right sites. 

Several disinformation sites claim that the Boutcha massacre was staged by Ukrainians.

© Screenshots/ Editing RFI

Rewriting events

Russian authorities say there were no dead bodies on the streets when their troops withdrew, starting March 30.

The first images of victims began to circulate on April 1, after the liberation of the city by Ukrainian soldiers.

This is what Russia relies on to assert either that the corpses were placed there by Ukrainian soldiers, or that these civilians were killed by the Ukrainians. 

However, satellite images provided to the

by the company Maxar, show that the corpses were present in this same street, from March 19, under the Russian occupation.

The location of the bodies on these views of the sky corresponds perfectly to the photos taken on the ground by the journalists who arrived on the spot in the very first days of April.

Breaking News: Satellite images refutes Russia's claim that the killing of civilians in Bucha, a suburb of Ukraine's capital, occurred after its soldiers had left town, a New York Times analysis found.

https://t.co/2pDlly6EHs

— The New York Times (@nytimes) April 4, 2022

These facts were also confirmed by drone images that the independent Russian-language media

authenticated and released this Thursday, April 7.

journalists

claim to have obtained these files from fighters present in the field.

These are recordings made between March 23 and 30, during the Russian occupation. 

serial infox

On April 3, pro-Russian media broadcast a montage of a video from the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, purporting to show a corpse raising its hand as a camera posted in a car passed.

In reality, it is the effect produced by a stain on the windshield.

The Telegram account of the Russian Ministry of Defense itself relayed this infox, also claiming that we could see the body on the road straightening up after the passage of the vehicle.

In reality, the corpses do not move.

One can simply distinguish the deformation of the image in the rear-view mirror of the car, deformation which affects as much the image of the corpse as of the roadway.

Other fake news is circulating about an alleged staging, but they have all been invalidated.

Finally, the testimonies collected on the spot are consistent.

These are indeed real corpses, and it is indeed Russian soldiers who committed these atrocities. 

Statement by Sergueï Matiuk, municipal agent in Boutcha, recorded by Sami Boukhelifa and Vincent Souriau on April 4, 2022.

Testimony

Ideological conditioning

It is still too early to know what really happened in March 2022 in Boutcha, and in what circumstances the massacre took place.

What is certain is that there is a context conducive to this type of violence.

The day when these acts were discovered, potentially falling within the scope of a “ 

 ”, the official Russian 

published the opinion piece by Timofei Sergeyitsev, a Russian ideologue glorifying the crime against the Ukrainians.

He uses the term denazification used by Vladimir Putin, while specifying that a " 

" must be carried out  , targeting the " 

 " who would be " 

 ".

Even if it is difficult to measure the impact of such speeches on the Russian population and on the troops, the fact that these remarks are broadcast by one of the most important Russian press agencies, says a lot about the packaging company accompanying the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. 

Other Bouchas?

In any case, there are other suspicions of war crimes in occupied cities of Ukraine.

It remains to be seen how organized all this is, and whether or not it is a terror strategy by the Russian army.

The information coming from the field, involving Russian soldiers but also militiamen from the Wagner group, is worrying.

According to

, the German secret services intercepted several radio exchanges of Russian troops, proving in particular their role in the Boutcha massacre.

They also reveal that a Russian commander present in Mariupol allegedly ordered his men to kill all civilians.

The International Criminal Court (ICC), NGOs such as Human Rights Watch and the Ukrainian authorities continue to conduct the investigation on the spot.

© RFI

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