Lavrov says UN tells on itself by refusing to provide Bucha evidence

The UN's refusal to provide Russia with any evidence in the alleged Bucha massacre is a "disgrace," and says everything you need to know about the matter, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in a November 21 interview with the YouTube channel of the Franco-Russian Dialogue association.

The minister said that every year, he appeals to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres with a request to receive the list of individuals whose bodies were shown in a BBC program as alleged victims of a Russian massacre.

"He said that they have rules, and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights is dealing with this. I replied that we had sent them a letter, to which they replied that they had procedures in place according to which they could not disclose confidential information if it could cause moral or other damage to the survivors. I won't even comment on it. It's a disgrace for an organization that publishes any facts when it’s convenient. Hiding the names of those whose corpses have already been used for provocation is a confession of guilt. I'm even embarrassed for him. He's a respected man, after all," Lavrov said.

Lavrov said that Russia is well aware of how the "Western propaganda machine" operates and how it knows how to "fabricate anti-Russian and Russophobic news. We have a clear position on each such case. If there are doubts - the UN members, Red Cross representatives - we are ready to sit down and listen to what facts you can present to us, what facts you have. As soon as we say that to them, they immediately leave (as we say) ‘under the driftwood,’" the minister said. Lavrov added that when someone accuses Russia of allegedly dropping something on Ukrainian civilian facilities, Guterres and his official representative Stephane Dujarric declare that they strongly condemn such actions, but when Ukraine hits Russia, the UN says that they "understand these matters."

The minister cited the events in Bucha as an example. "Russian President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin has talked about this more than once, as a gesture of goodwill, at the request of some Western mediators, we withdrew our troops from the suburbs of Kiev, including the village of Bucha. For two days there was no one from the Russian military or Russians in general in this suburb," the minister said. He said that for two days the mayor of Bucha said that the Russians had left the city, but on the third day, BBC correspondents arrived.

"And then there came yells, screams, condemnation, new packages of sanctions. No one responded to our suggestion to hold an investigation. Since then, we've been struggling asking to tell us at least something about Bucha. As soon as they skimmed off the propaganda ‘foam,’ no one wanted to hear or remember about Bucha," Lavrov added.