Statement by First Deputy Permanent Representative Dmitry Polyanskiy at a UNSC Arria-Formula Meeting on Disinformation and Sabotage of Peace in Ukraine
Main statement
Dear colleagues,
3 years ago, all media agencies of the world published breaking news: hundreds of bodies were found on the streets of a small Ukrainian town of Bucha near Kiev, all of them with their hands tied. Most of the Western media outlets unequivocally and squarely blamed this massacre on Russia and Bucha since then was deliberately and consistently turned into a symbol of Ukrainian martyrdom and alleged Russian brutality. This small place has become a quasi-obligatory destination for any foreign delegation visiting Kiev. In this propagandaexercise all the blanks, false claims and discrepancies of the official version of events were deliberately disregarded.
But let’s ask ourselves a simple question: do we know what really happened in Bucha three years ago? Do we care about the truth? It’s obvious that as far as the Kiev regime and its Western backers are concerned, they definitely don’t. And they don’t want the others to ask these questions too. They feel quite comfortable in the bubble of lies about Russia which they have been consistently inflating for at least two decades. And since the “Bucha hoax” is one of the core elements of this bubble the West is aggressively resistant to any attempts to question the Bucha narrative. I have no doubt that today in their statements our Western colleagues will label our meeting “Russian propaganda and manipulation” ignoring facts and testimonies that they will hear. That’s their well-known tactics to ignore the truth and uncomfortable facts.
But, as we all know, facts are stubborn things and it’s hard to dismiss strong evidence. Therefore, we intend to briefly revisit the events of the end of March - the beginning of April 2022. First of all, it is important to recall the context of these events. As you all know, Russia started its special military operation on February 24, 2022 and by mid-March Russian troops have advanced as far as outskirts of Kiev including Bucha. But since we were from day one prioritizing a diplomatic solution over a military one by that moment bilateral Russian-Ukrainian talks on how to end this conflict proceeded first in Minsk and then in Istanbul. And by the middle of March 2022 our negotiators initialed a draft agreement which contained principles acceptable both to Russia and Ukraine.
Given such a progress, as a gesture of good will Russia took a decision to voluntarily withdraw from a number of Northern regions of Ukraine, including the Kiev oblast where Bucha is situated. To give you an idea we will show you a slide with two maps depicting the territory controlled by my country in Ukraine on March 15 and April 5, and you will see the difference.
But, as everyone knows today, these peaceful efforts were derailed, primarily by our British colleagues, who convinced Zelensky that if he rejects this peace offer and opts to fight for Western geopolitical interests, he will be able to defeat Russia with the economic and military support of the West. And the ambitious and narcissist Ukrainian President fell for the bait thus making as it is clear today a fatal mistake for his country. But then everything looked different and the task was to create an unbeatable pretext that could convince his countrymen and the international public opinion that agreeing on something with Russia was not an option. Here came this idea of a terrible false-flag operation in Bucha jointly implemented between April 2 and 3 by Ukrainian special services and MI-6.
Later British Prime Minister Boris Johnson capitalized on the international outcry after discoveries in Bucha and together with Zelensky announced in Kiev on April 9 that instead of signing an agreement with Russia Ukraine will continue to fight and the West will actively help it. And before that our British colleagues who were presiding over our Council in April in blatant disrespect to their mandate rejected our request of the urgent meeting on Bucha provocation that we tabled as early as April 3 thus displaying their clear involvement in this provocation. This unprecedented disdain for the Council working methods is documented through our letter circulated as an official document of the Council.
Colleagues,
Facts are indeed stubborn things, so let me briefly walk you through major discrepancies of the Bucha narrative.
On 30 March 2022, following another round of talks in Ankara and Istanbul, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced the withdrawal of forces from several regions, including Bucha.
On March 31, the Bucha town council released a video statement from Mayor Anatoly Fedoruk, who announced the “liberation of Bucha” and confirmed that there were no Russian troops in the town without mentioning any mass atrocities, dead bodies, killings, graves, or anything of this sort. Let us show you the video posted by Mr. Fedoruk. As you will see, he appears happy and smiling. It is hard to imagine that he would act this way against the backdrop of an alleged “massacre” in the streets.
On 2 April 2022, the National Police of Ukraine shared footage on its Telegram messenger channel showing Ukrainian special forces entering Bucha, which you see on the screen. The footage shows no dead bodies in the streets. The police personnel interviewed several people in different locations across Bucha, yet none of them mentioned any “massacre” or mass killings. The camera also captures broader areas behind these people, with no dead bodies in sight.
To sum up, for four days after the Russian military left Bucha, there was not a single sign of any “atrocities”. I repeat – not a single reference to it anywhere. There were also numerous images of photojournalists swarming around the streets of Bucha during these days, taking pictures on top of one another. The pictures themselves were rather standard for a conflict zone: burned military equipment and damaged surroundings which is explainable since Ukrainian forces had been heavily shelling the town while Russian army was there. But what is missing on all these early photos of Bucha immediately after the withdrawal of Russian forces are bodies and signs of mass executions.
Let me draw your attention in this regard to another infamous video that was posted by a certain Ukrainian neo-Nazi Serhii Korotkikh, the leader of the Ukrainian territorial defense units that entered Bucha after the withdrawal of Russian forces. It depicts members of his unit discussing whether they should shoot people not wearing blue armbands (the sign indicating support for the Kiev regime). And you understand that these could be only civilians as the Russian forces had left the town 4 days ago. The commander’s affirmative response is clearly heard, permitting such actions. Although Korotkikh hastily deleted his video, copies remain accessible online.
So, what we have here is a selfie-video of a renown neo-Nazi who hates Russia and its supporters, giving a direct order to Ukrainian militants to shoot civilians without the blue armband, which perfectly explains dead civilians with white armbands – or without blue ones – in this area. If it’s not a smoking gun, what is it?
And then all of a sudden shortly after the mentioned entry of Ukrainian forces Ukrainian and Western media outlets circulated photos of several bodies in civilian clothes. What a coincidence after several days of silence about any signs of killed civilians lying in the streets.
These images immediately raised multiple questions among experts.
First, these were the same few bodies pictured from different angles – not hundreds or even thousands, as claimed by the Kiev regime.
Second, Ukrainian propagandists and Western media claimed that these bodies had been lying in the streets of Bucha since March 11. The weather in Bucha was hot at this time but the bodies don’t have any signs of decomposition. Moreover, they are not stiff and there are wounds with fresh blood on some of them which is explainable if they had been killed one or two days before. One more unexplainable discrepancy - the bodies were visibly dirty since it was raining heavily during these couple of days, yet the cloth used to tie their hands was visibly pristine white. The only plausible explanation is that their hands were tied just before the photoshoot to support the political narrative.
Last, but definitely not least, many bodies had white cloth around an arm or a leg – a sign used by the Russian Armed Forces to identify friendlies. In contrast to the pristine ribbons tying their hands, these pieces of cloth were visibly dirty from days of rain, suggesting that people were wearing them at the time of death. It is also a known fact that Ukraine used a different sign – a blue cloth or tape – to identify their friendlies.
Looks fishy, doesn’t it? And if I add to this that there are witnesses of how this false-flag operation was committed? One of them is French writer Adrien Bocquet, who visited Bucha in April and witnessed this provocation unfolding, with bodies brought from different places and piled together on the roads to create the appearance of mass killings. He is joining us today to tell the story of events in Bucha.
It would have been very important to hear another witness, Gonzalo Lira, and we would have readily invited him but unfortunately, he was tortured to death in a Ukrainian prison. No one has been held responsible for the death of this US citizen. But, his debunking video on Bucha fake lives on.
So, did anyone pay any attention to these astounding discrepancies and clear testimonies? The answer is no. And there are many others which I will not quote today given our time limits. Instead of displaying their investigative talents Western media rushed into propagating shallow baseless accusations against Russia. Was there an independent public investigation in Bucha conducted? No. Moreover, Ukraine and its supporters during these three years have failed to provide any trustworthy evidence proving that civilians were killed in Bucha by Russian forces. They have not disclosed even the most basic details, such as the identities of the deceased or the results of post-mortem examinations. We repeatedly requested this information, including through the UN Secretary-General. But in vain. And having listened to Adrien I think you understand why Ukraine prefers to withhold this evidence if it has it.
I also have to mention that the role of certain UN officials in promoting this provocation is deeply troubling. Instead of maintaining the impartiality required by the UN Charter, they have actively engaged in spreading unverified and unsubstantiated allegations.
For example, the report of High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, dated 7 December 2022, pretentiously entitled “Killings of civilians: summary executions and attacks on individual civilians…”, establishes the number of dead civilians as 1,365 in the Kiev region, including 422 in Bucha, relying solely on a single source – a Facebook page of the Main Department of the National Police in Kiev region. In other words, information to support egregious accusations against Russia is taken by the UN from an interested party without any verification from an independent source. Moreover, today web-links indicated in the report no longer work. If you try to follow them – all you get is a notification that the author blocked or deleted the content. Thus, all numbers used in the report are completely baseless having been taken from biased, unverified, unofficial and no longer available source.
Interestingly, the same report, when referring to a number of deaths allegedly documented by OHCHR itself uses much lower number – 441 killings of civilians (and that’s not only Bucha, but several other regions as well). And when it comes to presenting specifics, you get even less – report claims to present “in detail 10 selected cases of killings of 21 civilians”.
Down from 1,365 to 21 dead in just three paras – 25, 26 and 27 of the text, this an excellent example of OHCHR reporting.
But when we study closely even those “selected cases”, it’s obvious that there is no real evidence, just hearsay, not satisfying any basic rules for chain of custody of evidence and not giving any details on the victims that would allow to investigate alleged acts.
Author of the report – Mr. Volker Türk – defended its authenticity and in his letters addressed to us claimed that OHCHR had documented serious violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law attributable to Russian Armed Forces during field visits to Bucha. He specifically mentioned that such information could be shared upon a formal cooperation request from national authorities, in line with the established practice and the 1946 Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations.
Accordingly, the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation officially submitted a request for cooperation concerning the criminal case related to the Bucha events of April 2022. We transmitted those requests to the Secretariat on 9 September 2024 and sent official reminders in November 2024, January and March 2025.
Colleagues,
I guess you will not be surprised if I tell you that our official request remains unanswered for seven months. The UN Secretariat has not provided any of the requested information or documents essential for ensuring the proper administration of justice. This inaction contradicts Section 21 of Article V of the 1946 Convention, which explicitly states that the United Nations shall cooperate with Member States to facilitate the proper administration of justice.
The continued silence from the Secretariat only proves that there is no “documented evidence” supporting the Bucha claims.
Today, it is also crystal clear that the so-called “Bucha massacre” was a monstrous provocation staged by Kiev and its British backers to thwart peace, perpetuate the conflict, and pressure other Western allies into supplying weapons to Ukraine.
Colleagues, this provocation appears especially sacrilegious when viewed in light of the severe crimes and blatant violations of IHL committed by the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the territory of the Russian Federation. During a number of the SC briefings and Arria-formula meetings we have been regularly updating you on the ill-fated Kursk incursion of the Ukrainian Army, sharing eyewitness accounts of their crimes against civilians.
On 8 March, the Russian Army started a large-scale operation aimed at squeezing out the remaining enemy forces. The sudden and covert nature of the maneuver allowed to penetrate deep behind Ukrainian lines, forced Ukrainian units into a hasty retreat, leaving them no time to cover up the evidence of their crimes. Now almost all of the territory is back under Russian control.
Soldiers who liberated the villages study the consequences of the presence of Ukrainian occupiers. On the screen you can see the amount of destruction they caused. While fleeing, Ukrainian troops were massively abandoning expensive Western military equipment in the region. They have heavily mined the territory. In some villages, such as Cherkasskoye Porechnoye, there is evidence that Ukrainian militants even mined local residents’ houses, animal carcasses, kids’ toys, and the bodies of their own “brothers-in-arms”. They placed ammunition depots in civilian facilities in the Kursk border area, which were found in cultural centers, schools and kindergartens. The Ukrainian terrorists looted the settlements and carried out veritable pogroms in local churches – smashing icons, destroying altars and church furnishings.
Those local residents who survived under occupation are being taken to safe areas where they receive medical care and necessary assistance. All of them are sharing horrifying facts of brutal torture, rape, murders, and other crimes committed by Ukrainians against innocent civilians, most of whom were sick elderly people and underage children. During our Arria-formula meeting in August last year we told you about a young pregnant woman, who was shot while trying to leave the city with her family. Her husband left the unconscious wife at the hospital, but was unable to return for her, as all roads were closed off. After the liberation of the region her body along with bodies of hospital staff was found and she can finally be put to rest.
In the liberated village of Martynovka a body of an elderly woman was found. When soldiers searched for her documents, they found a diary she had kept during the occupation.
Let me quote some of the diary entries: “I lived, slept in the barn under the table... Every day I asked for death…I hadn’t eaten for 12 days…It’s three degrees in the hut, it’ll be the end soon…After the war, at least find a bone and bury it near Sveta, and the soul is in heaven”.
Suffering daily significant losses on the battlefield, the neo-Nazi Kiev regime is using terrorist methods to try to show its ability to negotiate “from a position of strength”, but in reality, it is demonstrating its own impotence and, essentially, its demise.
I would like to draw your attention to the fact that all materials presented today are available via the QR-code that you now see on the screen.
Thank you.
Concluding remarks
Dear colleagues,
I understand that today wasn’t the easiest Arria-formula meeting of the Security Council that you all attended. It was full of emotions and troubling facts which are extremely unsettling for everybody. Predictably, those selectively blind and deaf among us chose to call our meeting propaganda and manipulation. Frankly, colleagues, it looked pathetic and unconvincing against the backdrop of the evidence, including first-hand one that we provided. But instead of focusing on their faint-heartedness I want to thank those who dared to listen to our briefers and opened their hearts to the emotions and pain that they endured.
Colleagues,
When we speak about sustainable peace, we have to build it on solid basement and not on lies and manipulations. And that is why we insist on addressing the root causes of the conflict that started not in February 2022, but 8 years earlier, after the anti-constitutional coup-d'etat in Kiev in February 2014. And this animal cruelty, hatred towards everything Russian, dates back to that period. If you dared to listen to the residents of Donbass, when they asked the UN Security Council to come to their help, you would hear the same accounts of mass killings of civilians, unfathomable atrocities, torture, rape, degrading treatment of everyone who dares to defend his or her Russian identity. You just didn’t want to listen to them as you turn deaf ear today to the residents of the Kursk region who shared with you their pain and sufferings counting on a certain compassion, ideally support and solidarity. But for our western colleagues, those in Kursk who lost their loved ones and faced atrocities are just an annoying obstacle to the promotion of a Ukraine-is-always-right narrative. By behaving in this manner, you, colleagues, undermine credibility of the UN Security Council and the UN as a whole in the eyes of those in the world who watch this meeting and who naively believe that the truth and iron cast evidence matter for all members of the Council.
As I mentioned, these terrible crimes of the Kiev regime didn’t start in Kursk, neither did they start in 2022. They began in 2014 and we started our special military operation exactly to stop these crimes and to eradicate the evil which nested in Kiev and proclaimed the war against everything Russian with the blessing of our western colleagues. Those who have ears, eyes and hearts must have realized through the accounts of our briefers today the true colors of the Kiev regime and why we are saying that we are not fighting Ukrainians, but we are rather fighting Nazis in Ukraine.
I thank everyone for the attention.
