Boris Johnson addressed the Russian people with an unusual video message.

In the speech, which he delivered in part in Russian, the British prime minister urged the public to get a VPN connection and follow war reports from foreign media in order to share them with compatriots.

The Russian state media suppresses the facts about killings of civilians because Moscow knows they are angering the people against the war, he said.

Jochen Buchsteiner

Political correspondent in London.

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"The Russian people deserve the truth - you deserve the facts," Johnson began his speech in Russian.

Then he faded in recordings of corpses in Bucha and spoke of the horror of the whole world.

"The footage is so shocking and hideous that it's no wonder your government is trying to keep it away from you," he said.

Putin knows that his people do not support the war if they know about the massacre of Ukrainian civilians.

Anyone who doesn't believe him, Johnson, should get "independent information from all over the world".

"And when you have found the truth - share it." Again in Russian, he ended his speech: "Your President is accused of war crimes, but I cannot believe that he is acting on your behalf."

It is unclear to what extent the video, which the government published on social media on Tuesday evening, can spread in Russia.

Access to Facebook and Twitter has become difficult in Russia.

Whether broad sections of the population know how to set up a VPN connection that can be used to bypass digital blocks also seems doubtful.

Even when London imposed sanctions on Moscow before the war, Johnson had always found it important to distinguish between the Putin regime and the Russian people.

He repeatedly warned against a “witch hunt” against all Russians – most recently in connection with measures against oligarchs close to the Kremlin.

Opponents accused him of arguing on his own behalf because the publisher Yevgeny Lebedev (now a member of the House of Lords) – son of former KGB official Alexander Lebedev – was a friend of the Johnsons.

The prime minister's first name, as well as his pan-European family history, has also occasionally given rise to speculation that he has personal ties to Russia.

But the only point of contact is a great-grandfather on the mother's side, who is said to have had roots in Russia.

Over the past twenty years, London has become a magnet for both oligarchs and critics of the Putin regime.

After initial reluctance, the British government says it has now imposed sanctions on more Russians than Washington and Brussels.

Johnson also sees his country "in the front row" on the energy embargo issue and on the delivery of war equipment.

On Wednesday he praised Germany and other EU countries for "enormous progress" in measures against Moscow, especially in reducing energy imports, but after the events in Bucha further sanctions should be adopted internationally.

The massacre of civilians was "not far from genocide," Johnson told the BBC.