Lavrov says Ukraine is “hiding the names” of those killed in Bucha. Yet many of them are in public domain

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, during a press conference, launched a slew of unsubstantiated accusations against Ukraine. In his opinion, it has been preparing to detonate a “dirty bomb” and blame it on Russia. All Russian officials, citing unnamed “sources,” have been saying this for the second day in a row.

To be more convincing, Lavrov reminded of the massacre in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, which he still calls a “provocation.”

“For example, the well-known provocation in Bucha. That was at the end of March of this year. Since then, we have been repeatedly asking everyone who can help to provide information about the names of the people who fell victim. Their bodies have been shown to the world as “evidence of atrocities” by the Russian military. A month ago, I appealed publicly to UN Secretary General António Guterres to get a list of those people. No response. This is further evidence of how “transparent” Ukraine is and how much it has “nothing to hide””.

Lavrov is right about one thing: there is still no final list of those killed in Bucha. There are so many victims that the searches and identification are still ongoing. For example, according to the press service of the Kyiv region police, 422 civilians were found dead as of September 13 (plus those who had died of other causes during the occupation: as of August 8, there were 39 such people).

As for the rest, the Russian minister has lied as he always does. For example, the Bucha Ritual Service did publish lists of the dead. This was at the end of April, less than a month after the Ukrainians entered the town left by the Russian occupiers. In addition, there is an unofficial Telegram channel called “Killed in the Bucha District”, where activists publish photos of dead bodies found and the corresponding details (e.g., passport photos) so that the bodies could be identified by their relatives. This was how everybody learned about the death of Ilya Navalny, a distant relative of the politician Alexei Navalny. The Bucha City Council, in a commentary to the Ukrainian project StopFake, confirmed the existence of a verified list with detailed information on the dead. The Council also noted the list was available to everyone upon request.