Truth is the first casualty in war
Ethel Annakin, 1915
On April 4, 2022, the Western media are roaring against Russia, about the slaughter of civilians in Bucha, a town in Kiev northwestern suburb, Ukraine. The dates and sites of the killings are unknown. The identities of the victims are unknown. The sources are Ukrainian, directly or indirectly officials whose assertions are widely admitted. I am a long time fan of the British media and tabloids. In the United Kingdom, the buzz is a gradient, from Civilians ‘shot in the street’ [The Times] to Putin last atrocities, GENOCIDE [Daily Mirror]. Here is the cover of The Guardian
On April 3, French president Emmanuel Macron has already written on Twitter
the images reaching us from Bucha, a liberated town near kyiv, are unbearable. In the streets, hundreds of cowardly murdered civilians. My compassion for the victims, my solidarity with the Ukrainians. The Russian authorities will have to answer for these crimes
Yet, some journalists have learned how to investigate and State intelligence agencies are supposed to deliver reliable information to the politicians. I am wondering what are the shares of bad faith and hysteria.
By the way, what happened in Bucha and when ?
The military context
On February 24, 2022, Russia has started in Ukraine a special military operation. Its public goals are the liberation of the Donbass, a Russian-speaking region in southeastern Ukraine, separatist and war torn for eight years, the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine.
The same day, airborne troops have seized Antonov airport, in the northwestern suburb of Kiev, held the ground until reinforcements. Then, the Russian forces have attacked to the north and northeast, toward Kiev. From north to south, the steps were Antonov airport, Gostomel, Bucha, Irpin, Kiev
- 11:00 pm UT, March 28
Jomini of the West is a Western military analyst, a
polemologist writer and speaker on all things related to human conflict. #Fortuna Podcast ; discussions on waging peace, surviving war, and the fate of Humankind
who is making analytical assessments and nice maps.
On March 28, Bucha is on the front line and Ukraine forces are counterattacking
Jomini won’t make new assessment or map in the region of Kiev before March 31.
- 9:20 pm UT, March 31
On social networks, Ukrainian channels are sharing a video recorded from drone in broad daylight : the Russian forces have left Antonov airport, which is north of Gostomel, which is north of Bucha.
> the Russians are conducting a strategic retreat in good order. If they have withdrawn from Antonov airport, a fortiriori, they have left Gostomel and Bucha
- 11:00 pm UT, March 31
The Russian forces are conducting a retreat in good order on the right bank (left on the map) of the Dniepr. The front line is now north of Ivankiv, about 60 km north of Bucha, that the Ukrainian forces are controlling, far behind their new lines. Some wooden areas need to be searched north of Bucha, because Russian elements may remain there. The retreat is conducted in good order and I don’t think that Russian servicemen have been isolated
- 2:31 pm UT, April 1
Anatoliy Fedoruk is the mayor of Bucha. Ecstatic, he publishes on Facebook a video from the town, says
March 31 will go down in the history of our Bucha community as the Day of Liberation. The liberation by our Armed Forces of Ukraine from Russian orcs [sic], from Russian occupiers. So today, I state that this day is joyful. Joyful and this is a great victory in Kyiv region ! And we will definitely wait so that there is a great victory all over Ukraine
> according to cross-checked information from various sources, the Ukrainian forces are controlling Bucha since March 31. I have found no trace of fresh fighting in the town. On April 1, the Ukrainian administration is back, the SBU (State security) and its PSYOP department too.
Fedoruk does NOT mention murders of civilians
Bisher ist Alles in Ordnung !
We know that the Ukrainian forces are controlling Bucha since March 31. On April 3, the Russian defense ministry will state that its army have left the town on March 30. There was no urban warfare, the Ukrainians came in the day after.
On April 1, nobody mentions murders of civilians.
The liberation of Bucha
- 5:48 pm UT, April 2
AFP (Agence France Presse) writes on Twitter
#BREAKING Almost 300 people buried in ‘mass grave’ in Bucha outside Kyiv: mayor [Anatoliy Fedoruk]
> More than 25 hours after his ecstatic video from the town, two days after its liberation, Fedoruk speaks by phone with a Western news agency, about dead civilians and a mass grave.
Actually, Ukrainian web users are sharing an amateur video, allegedly from Bucha, since 0:15 am. It has been recorded in broad daylight, probably the day before, April 1. A few corpses are scattered in the middle of a street.
300 was already, according to the Ukrainian authorities, the number of vicitms of the alleged Russian airstrike against the Drama theater in Mariupol, Donbass, on March 16.
- 5:52 pm UT, April 2
At the same time, the official website of the Ukrainian national police publishes an article and photos about its operations in Bucha, since its liberation on March 31
[…] today, April 2, in the liberated city of Bucha, Kyiv region, special units of the National Police of Ukraine began clearing the area of saboteurs and ACCOMPLICES of Russian troops […]
The involved units are special purpose [I am in Love with euphemism] formations. But their names are evocative : Safari, KORD, Thor.
> Released in the afternoon of April 2, two days after the liberation, three days after the Russian retreat, an official Ukrainian article does NOT mention murders of civilians
- 6:41 pm UT, April 2
The AFP (Agence France Presse) adds on Twitter
[…] as witnessed by @AFP, he [Anatoliy Fedoruk] said the heavily destroyed town’s streets are littered with corpses […]
- 9:48 pm UT, April 2
The AFP (Agence France Presse) adds on Twitter
[…] in the town of Bucha, AFP reporters saw at least 20 bodies on a single street including one with his hands tied […]
> The AFP photographer is Ronaldo Schemidt, a Venezuelan one and a reliable source. His pictures from Bucha are now famous. I won’t share here images of the corpses, which are about two dozens at all, in various sites. They seem still fresh, but a coroner could assert it. They are dressed like civilians. Some are wearing WHITE ARMBANDS, which are the usual identification mark of Russian troops, some others with hands tied in the back with identical white bands.
Some victims were clearly carrying Russian food rations. The Russian army is widely dispensing food rations in the areas under its control. But in Ukrainian nationalist opinion, to accept such ration is an act of treason
- 2:25 pm UT, April 3
Most Western media are in fusion. I cannot imagine that the average IQ of journalists is so poor or that they are so hysterical at work. I guess bad faith is the main syndrome. The AFP remains factual, writes on Twitter
fifty-seven people were buried in a mass grave in Bucha, a town outside Kyiv recently retaken by Ukrainian forces from Russian troops, a local official [mayor Anatoliy Fedoruk] said Sunday, showing AFP a slit trench where the bodies lay
Here is an enhanced screenshot from an amateur video which is shared on social networks the same day
> The death toll is finally 57, not 300 [Anatoliy Fedoruk] nor hundreds [Emmanuel Macron] The trench is so far the unique mass grave in Bucha, where Ukrainians are CURRENTLY burying the corpses which were previously lying in the streets.
They are NOT conducting forensic investigations. The ABCs of such criminal probe are the identification of each victim, dating and map of each corps, identification of the causes of each death. As we already know, the cops are abounding in Bucha. Why do they not conduct these elementary tasks ?
My expertise
The Russian troops have withdrawn from Bucha on March 30. The Ukrainian forces have occupied the town on March 31. The clearing of Russia accomplices has begun. Nobody claimed it or took credit. But CRASH ! on April 2 : web users have started sharing an amateur video which was showing corpses scattered in a street on April 1. The Ukrainian authorities have taken the chance to accuse Russia, with the usual complaisance of Western media and politicians.
Finally, without forensic investigation, 57 people have been buried in a mass grave on April 3. They were Russia accomplices, whom Ukrainian death squads have assassinated, maybe also some fatalities of the previous fighting.
Facts are not the friends of Ukraine and its allies
Scott Ritter, former US intelligence officer on April 4, 2022
Postscript
While the European Union is emerging as no more than a free trade area within NATO, its German president, Ursula von der Leyen, on April 8, visits Bucha, which will become a PR scene for Western politicians
The disgrace is not that Leyen is a poor actress. The climax of the staging is that one week after the alleged Russian massacre, a bundle of filled body bags, maybe victims inside, are still lying on the ground in the open. Did they wait there for her ? Have they been displaced like movie sets ? The film crew is so disrespectful of the dead, so contemptuous of the public intelligence, so inhuman.
On April 11, 18 servicemen of the French IRCGN (Institut de recherche criminelle de la gendarmerie nationale) arrive in Ukraine, in order to conduct forensic investigations in Bucha, where they are examining corpses that the Ukrainian authorities are submitting as victims of Russian atrocities. Against all expectations, the French investigators find small metal darts called fléchettes, which are used to fill some 122 mm anti-personal artillery ammunition. On April 24, the Guardian publishes a vile article, in order to sustain the accusations against Russia despite these new evidences, writes a huge absurdity
according to a number of witnesses in Bucha, fléchette rounds were fired by Russian artillery a few days before forces withdrew from the area at the end of March
> How moronic would have been the Russian shelling of Russian defensive positions. More seriously, the Ukrainian forces are usually shelling the civilians areas they have lost. And they have previously shot such anti-personal ammunition against the separatist population of Donbass. My assertion is that some victims were Russia accomplices, whom Ukrainian death squads have slaughtered after the liberation of the city on March 31. The French investigators have found the evidences that the Ukrainian artillery has killed other ones. I will not grant anymore confidence to Western media.
On August 16, 2022, the reason why Ukrainian death squads, special purpose formations of the national police, slaughtered civilians in Bucha is engraved in the law
To receive Russian humanitarian aid, like food, is officially a crime, the crime of collaborationism. Sadly for the victims in Bucha, 138 days ago, the unofficial death penalty was tougher than 15 years in jail.
Nicolas Cinquini 
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