Sometimes, not even all the disinformation or fake news is able to change public opinion. Such is the case of the killings Russian troops perpetrated in the town of Bucha, located 15 miles northwest of Kyiv, which Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba classified as the worst massacre in Europe since World War II. In an interview with Interfax news agency, the minister added that “hundreds of bodies had been collected.”
Unable to use the municipal cemetery because of continued shelling, 280 corpses were buried in a mass grave, said Anatoli Fedoruk, mayor of Bucha, which has about 35,000 inhabitants. “Some were lying on the sidewalk, others next to their car or bicycle,” the mayor said in a Facebook video. Russian soldiers “wiped out entire families of children, women, grandmothers, and men,” he added.
The discovery of hundreds of civilian bodies killed execution-style following the withdrawal of Russian troops from Bucha shocked Ukraine and the world, EFE news agency reported. Media footage shed light on the scale of a massacre for which Russia denies any responsibility, according to the report.
The Butcher of Bucha
Although the Kremlin denies the massacre, the identity of the person responsible for such an atrocity is now known. The so-called “Butcher of Bucha” is Russian Army Lieutenant Colonel Omurbekov Azatbek Asanbekovich, according to InformNapalm, a site dedicated to covering the Russo-Ukrainian War and the activities of the Russian special services.
Azatbek Asanbekovich was in charge of the Russian troops that on March 31, 2022, withdrew from the city, leaving civilian bodies scattered in the streets, or in mass graves, executed with a bullet in the back of the head and their hands tied behind their backs, Argentine newspaper Clarin reported.
Authorities in Kyiv have reacted with horror to the massacre in Bucha, which they said aimed at eliminating as many civilians as possible, and urged European governments to redouble pressure on Moscow, Swissinfo.ch reported.
Despite all the evidence several media outlets have presented, Russia continues to deny that its troops killed citizens in Bucha and claims that all photographs and videos published by the media are a “provocation.”