Beijing: China said Wednesday images of civilian deaths in the Ukrainian town of Bucha are ‘deeply disturbing’. However, it said that no blame should be apportioned until all facts are known.
Emerging evidence of what appeared to be widespread civilian massacres in the wake of Russian withdrawals from the Kyiv areas may complicate Beijing’s attempts to guide public opinion over the conflict, in which China has refused to criticise Moscow.
China supports all initiatives and measures ‘conducive to alleviating the humanitarian crisis’ in Ukraine. It is ‘ready to continue to work together with the international community to prevent any harm to civilians’, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian told reporters at a daily briefing. “The truth and the cause of the incident must be verified,” Zhao said. “All parties should exercise restraint and avoid unfounded accusations before a conclusion of the investigation is drawn,” Zhao added.
Zhao’s remarks echo those of China’s ambassador to the United Nations, Zhang Jun. He had earlier called for an investigation, also describing the reports and images of civilian deaths in Bucha as ‘deeply disturbing’.
“The relevant circumstances and specific causes of the incident should be verified and established,” Zhang said in remarks Tuesday to the Security Council. He added that, ‘before the full picture is clear, all sides should exercise restraint and avoid unfounded accusations’.
China has called for talks while refusing to criticize Russia. It opposes economic sanctions on Moscow and blames Washington and NATO for provoking the war and fuelling the conflict by sending arms to Ukraine.
Zhao repeated China’s objections to sanctions. He accused the US of having manipulated the situation to ‘profit from the chaos and make a lot of money’. “History and reality have proven that sanctions do not bring peace and security, but only bring lose-lose or multiple losses, adding to the already difficult world economy and impacting the existing world economic system,” Zhao asserted.
Also read: Unequivocally condemn Bucha killings, support call for independent investigation: India at UNSC
The Russian Embassy here made use of the Weibo platform to reject the accusations. Its Ukrainian counterpart drew attention to ‘Russian war crimes against civilians in Irpin’, another town where atrocities allegedly occurred.
Meanwhile, as gruesome videos and photos of bodies emerge from the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, Kremlin-backed media are denouncing them as an elaborate hoax – a narrative that journalists in Ukraine have shown to be false.
Denouncing news as ‘fake’ or ‘spreading false reports’ to sow confusion and undermine its adversaries are tactics that Moscow has used for years. Russia has refined the ploy with the advent of social media in places like Syria.
In detailed broadcasts to millions of viewers, correspondents and hosts of Russian state TV channels said Tuesday that some photo and video evidence of the killings were fake. Others showed that Ukrainians were responsible for the bloodshed.
“Among the first to appear were these Ukrainian shots, which show how a soulless body suddenly moves its hand,” a report Tuesday on Russia-1’s evening news broadcast declared. “And in the rearview mirror it is noticeable that the dead seem to be starting to rise even.”
But satellite images from early March show the dead were left out on the streets of Bucha for weeks. A video taken April 2 from a moving car was posted online by a Ukrainian lawyer showing those same bodies scattered along Yablonska Street in Bucha. High-resolution satellite images of Bucha from commercial provider ‘Maxar Technology’ reviewed by ‘The Associated Press’ independently matched the location of the bodies with separate videos from the scene. Other Western media had similar reports.
Over the weekend, AP journalists saw the bodies of dozens of people in Bucha, many of them shot at close range, and some with their hands tied behind them. At least 13 bodies were located in and around a building that residents said was used as a base for Russian troops before they retreated last week.