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A soldier of the Ukrainian army after the liberation of Bucha
Photo: Matthew Hatcher / dpa
After the disturbing reports of a massacre by the Russian army of residents of the Kiev suburb of Bucha, Russia continues to deny any responsibility for the killings.
A spokeswoman for the State Department in Moscow has now claimed that the United States and its Western partners "ordered" the gruesome footage to blame Russia.
»Who are the masters of provocation?
The United States and NATO, of course," spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in an interview on Russian state television, according to Reuters news agency.
She took the West's rapid outrage at the incident as evidence of the alleged Western conspiracy.
"The fact that this information was provided within minutes after the material surfaced leaves no doubt as to who ordered this story," Zakharova said.
Zakharova did not bring any evidence for the allegations.
Russia had previously described the pictures from Bucha as "further staged provocation by the regime in Kyiv".
The Ukrainian side blames Russia for the mass killings.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke of a genocide and said he feared that "even more terrible things could happen" than what has become known so far about the crimes in Bucha.
The city was under Russian control until recently.
Apparently more than 300 bodies found
Everything indicates that Russian troops targeted and killed the civilians in cold blood.
According to Ukrainian media reports, well over 300 bodies of civilians have been recovered.
By Sunday evening, 330 to 340 lifeless bodies had already been collected, the newspaper Ukrajinska Pravda wrote on Monday, citing a funeral service.
The search for more victims continued on Monday.
Some bodies were buried in backyards, it said.
On Sunday, the Ukrainian side had already reported the discovery of a mass grave with around 280 dead who could not have been buried with dignity during the Russian attacks.
Coroners and other specialists are currently on the scene examining the bodies and conducting investigations.
fek/Reuters/dpa