Russian media campaign falsely claims Bucha deaths are fakes

By AMANDA SEITZ and ARIJETA LAJKA
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — As gruesome videos and photos of bodies emerge from the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, Kremlin-backed media are denouncing them as an elaborate hoax. That’s a narrative that journalists in Ukraine have shown to be false. Denouncing news as fake and spreading false reports to sow confusion and undermine its adversaries are tactics used by Moscow for years. Russian state TV said photo and video of the killings were flat-out fake while others showed that Ukrainians were responsible. But high-resolution satellite images reviewed by The Associated Press independently matched the location of the bodies with separate video in Bucha. AP journalists also saw the bodies of dozens of people, many shot at close range, and some with their hands tied behind them.