After a meeting between the two leaders earlier today, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko claimed the civilian deaths in Bucha, Ukraine were part of a “special British operation,” and Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed the deaths as “fake” and part of a Western propaganda campaign.
Lukashenko explicitly blamed the United Kingdom and the United States for creating a climate in Europe that led to war, reports National Interest.
He then called the Bucha massacre a “special British operation” and claimed that the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) would elaborate further.
The FSB is widely considered the successor organization to the KGB, the Kremlin’s intelligence arm during the Cold War.
Putin, in a press conference held after his meeting with Lukashenko, claimed the alleged war crimes are “fake” and comparable to “what he described as atrocities staged by the West in Syria that were subsequently attributed to [Syrian] President Bashar al-Assad,” National Interest reported.
Belarus has largely been treated as an ally of Russia since the Ukrainian invasion began, and has been subject to many of the same sanctions as Russia. The country has responded by deepening its economic and military ties to Russia.
Ukraine claims that civilians were found slain in Bucha following the Russian withdrawal from the region, and satellite photos verified by the New York Times appear to confirm this. Russia has previously denied having a part in the killing, levying the blame on Ukraine.
Video released by the Ukrainian army prior to the discovery of the massacre appeared to show Ukrainian troops entering Bucha with a promise to “cleanse” the area of Russian spies and collaborators. Skeptics have pointed to this video as evidence that the Kremlin may be telling the truth.
Meanwhile, Ukraine has suffered its own accusations of war crimes after a video surfaced last week showing Ukrainian soldiers execute Russian prisoners of war. The New York Times verified the video, and Human Rights Watch condemned the actions taken by Ukrainian soldiers as war crimes.
Russia invaded Ukraine in Februray after a years long standoff over the disputed Donbass region in eastern Ukraine. Russia claims it launched a “special military operation” to protect the majority-Russian ethnic communities in Donetsk and Lukansk – which consider themselves autonomous republics, while the Ukrainians consider them rebels – from Ukrainian state violence.
Today Putin claimed that peace talks with Ukraine have reached a “dead end” and said that the “special military operation” will continue until it reaches the goals he named in February.
Among those goals are the “denazification” of Ukraine, the demilitarization of the country, and a promise for it not to join NATO. Russia also demands Ukraine acknowledge the independence of at least Lukansk and Donetsk.
Those two republics, meanwhile, have suggested they will soon vote to join the Russian Federation, with the first prime minister of Donetsk recently claiming the region is already part of Russia.
