Russian Foreign Ministry summons French charge d'affaires

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - The Russian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday summoned French charge d'affaires to express Moscow's protest over the French Embassy statement accusing the Russian armed forces of "atrocities," released on the anniversary of events in Bucha.

The ministry said on its website that Jay Dharmadhikari was informed about "the categorical unacceptability of unfounded, false accusations" against the Russian military.

The diplomatic service stressed that France's allegations sound "especially inappropriate."

"Such provocative attacks by representatives of unfriendly countries sound all the more groundless because so far, we have not seen evidence of the so-called 'massacre in Bucha' -- lists of the names of those killed, the circumstances and dates of their death, the conclusions of forensic experts," the ministry stressed.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov asked UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to open an investigation of Bucha events, but has not got any response, it noted.

"To this day, Western countries only continue to indiscriminately accuse Russia of what it did not commit, while refusing to see the obvious crimes of the Kyiv regime," the ministry stressed.

In early April 2022, Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak said civilians in Bucha were found dead with their hands tied as Russian troops withdrew from their offensive toward Kyiv.

On April 4 last year, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said during a meeting with UN Deputy Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths that the footage of slain civilians was staged.

He said the Russian military left the city on March 30 and 31 and that the city's mayor announced that everything was all right. Then, several days later, suddenly, bodies of dead people "appeared" in the streets, he added.