Excusing the Massacre: Russian Officials and State-Run Media on Bucha

Abstract

On April 2 a series of immensely graphic images from Bucha, a suburb of the Ukrainian capital, were distributed by the leading international mass media. As details emerged, it became clear that Russian forces had massacred civilians in Bucha. Russian officials and state-run media have, however, been expressing an alternative view, using a "firehose of falsehood" to mislead domestic audiences and sow doubt about the cause of the massacre. Russian propaganda techniques employed in relation to Bucha include blaming the Ukrainian side, demonizing the Ukrainian government as "Nazis," alluding to conspiracies that "the West makes up against Russia," and pretending that "we were not there."