Sergey Smirnov is the editor-in-chief of MediaZona.
And let me tell you further how the Russian authorities and propagandists will react to war crimes in Bucha.
So, first, a vast pro-government curtain is being created. A bunch of departments vying with each other start talking about investigating fakes. Today it was the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Investigative Committee and the Foreign Ministry. I admit that others will also connect, maybe even Putin himself will say about fakes, and not only through Peskov. This also includes mocking appeals to the UN Security Council to investigate the monstrous fakes of Ukrainian Nazis (now, everyone ran to collect the Security Council in this wording)
Then the versions of propagandists will begin, or rather have already begun. They will be different, there will be a lot of them. It does not matter that they are unconvincing and easily refuted. They have no goal to build a slender version. The goal is different: to create the impression of a muddy history, where there are a lot of different things. Question a certain detail. Oh, look, 1488 is written on the gate, but there is a white armband, but this one who was shot 15 years ago approved the annexation of Crimea in Odnoklassniki.
At some point, they will have witnesses, and very different ones. There will also be dispatcher Carlos, who will see from space that the Ukrainian Nazis were killing people in Bucha. There will be some “eyewitnesses”, there is no doubt. With the appearance of each such “eyewitness”, the Investigative Committee, the prosecutor’s office and the Foreign Ministry will again be initiated. And pretend that now they have reinforced concrete arguments.
There will be experts who, in addition to the fault of the Ukrainian Nazis, will throw in a version that it is impossible to prove everything for sure in a war. Moreover, they will pretend to be liberals: they say we are against war crimes, there is simply no 100% evidence.
Only now everything is clear with the massacre in Bucha. There is no doubt who is responsible for this. And the authorities and propagandists will not succeed. The year is 2022, and your operator continues to run ahead of the sappers. Well, he works with idiots.
The Ukrainian willpower to fight for every inch lost is there. They don’t have a domestic military industry anymore at this point so they rely on captured equipment. Zelenskyy needs planes and tanks to retake cities and the West is too scared to supply them. I doubt the horrors of Bucha will do any convincing since Ukraine is “winning”.
The sad part is Bucha is just the tip of the iceberg with what’s happening all along Eastern Ukraine.
The west will just throw out a few more Russian diplomats.
It doesn’t matter. Is the claim that Ukrainians did it after the Russians left even plausible? How many crisis actors can you get right after a battle? The goal of the claims are not to refute the truth. The goal is to say who’s to tell what truth is after all? I mean it’s possible the Ukrainians killed the people after they left. Theyre Nazis after all. Etc.etc. They’re done the same playbook in Syria and they’re not going to change it.
*helicopter noise*
RU Cmdr: Have you seen a lost helicopter?
Ukr ATC: No helicopters around here, sorry.
RU Cmdr: You sure? He was going that way.
Ukr ATC: Sure I’m sure. But if you got one to sell, let’s talk.
RU Cmdr: What?
Ukr ATC: Well, look, I’m not supposed to do this but since you’re a commander I might be able to cut you in on a special deal, today only.
*Long pause*
RU Cmdr: Hey Mac, let me check with my wife. I’ll call you back.
