The images coming out of the northern Ukrainian town of Bucha have shocked the world after scenes of dead bodies lying on the streets suggested extrajudicial executions might have taken place there. The area was previously under the control of the Russian Armed Forces (RAF) as part of the likely feint that they made on Kiev during the first month of their country’s ongoing special military operation in Ukraine. The military advance on that country’s capital seems in hindsight to been intended to distract Russia’s opponents from Moscow’s true military goal of liberating the newly recognized Donbass Republics during the second phase of their operation that’s presently in full swing.

These foreign forces pulled out of Bucha on 30 March, which Mayor Anatoly Fedoruk confirmed the day after in a video address. Several days later, the earlier described images hit the global media, immediately followed by accusations that Russia carried out war crimes in that town. These have in turn prompted calls for sanctioning Moscow even more than it already is. This incident is being exploited by that country’s opponents to add credence to prior comparisons between the modern-day Russian Federation and Nazi Germany. The swiftness with which events have subsequently unfolded suggests that the US-led West isn’t letting a good crisis go to waste, so to speak.

It’s understandable that observers are very disturbed about what they’ve seen in those images. On the surface, it certainly appears as though war crimes took place, though it remains unclear exactly who committed them. Those who’ve been preconditioned to expect Russia to behave as monstrously as Nazi Germany due to the US-led West’s unprecedented warfare campaign against that Eurasian Great Power can’t realistically be convinced that Moscow isn’t guilty. More objective folks who simply aspire to understand precisely what happened in order for justice to be served to the culprits, however, will probably be interested in learning that everything might no be exactly as it seems at first glance.

The Russian Defense Ministry not only denied the RAF’s participation in this incident, but also raised some compelling points that are worth pondering. They wondered why so-called “evidence” of these supposed crimes only appeared several days after their forces left Bucha. The question was posed of why Mayor Fedoruk didn’t make any mention of this massacre during his video address on 31 March either. Furthermore, some of the bodies have white armbands around them, which RT reported in their hyperlinked article is “commonly used by Russian forces and civilians in areas under Russian control.” Two other important points deserve further contemplation as well.

The first is that the images didn’t begin circulating until after representatives of the Ukrainian intelligence services and the media entered Bucha, while secondly, many of the bodies curiously don’t show physical signs associated with cadavers that have supposedly been exposed to the elements for at least half a week already if Kiev’s official narrative is to be believed. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, “It’s particularity concerning that all the bodies of people whose images were published by the Kiev regime, after at least four days, have not stiffened, do not have characteristic cadaveric spots, and have fresh blood in their wounds.”

Calm and objective reporting about this incident is required in order to get as close to the truth as possible. Moscow made some compelling points that can’t morally be dismissed out of hand simply because one might have been preconditioned to expect its armed forces to commit this massacre due to the information warfare that they were exposed to in the run-up to this conflict. Without comprehensively addressing those concerns through the course of an independent and multilateral investigation carried out by credible experts, Kiev’s narrative will always remain questionable. Justice will never be served to those who committed what seems to be a massacre at first glance.

The emotional impact of those images on the average person might prompt an immediate reaction that clouds their judgement, but such is the power of military propaganda, which the Russian Defense Ministry accused Kiev of concocting with respect to the Bucha incident. The US-led West’s regional proxy has already carried out several unsuccessful psychological operations that were also discredited shortly after they went live, including the Snake Island incident and the Mariupol maternity and children’s hospital one, among others. Just because someone might sympathize with Kiev doesn’t mean that it can be automatically trusted, the same as can be said about those who sympathize with Moscow.

Simply put, those sincere members of the global public who are shocked by these images and demand that the culprits be brought to justice owe it to the victims to carry out an independent and multilateral investigation of this incident that comprehensively addresses the credible concerns raised by the Russian Defense Ministry. There’s no doubt that most of those same folks who are convinced that Russia is responsible for war crimes in that northern Ukrainian town would probably accuse Moscow of staging a so-called “false flag” if these bodies were discovered on the streets of a Donbass town that was just liberated from Kiev by the RAF and their local allies.

Everyone’s entitled to their own interpretation of events, including those who think that Russia was responsible as well as those who suspect that Kiev carried out a false flag psy-op (perhaps by dumping the bodies of extrajudicially executed suspected Russian sympathizers in that town following the RAF’s departure), but nobody can confidently assert with full certainty exactly what might have just happened in Bucha. That can only be known following the investigation that was called for in this analysis. Until then, folks should calmly and objectively report on this incident lest they risk prompting accusations that they’re engaged in military propaganda that immorally exploits the deceased.