Russian Envoy Says Report Disputing Bucha Events Will Be Presented to OSCE

Russia's Permanent Representative to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Dmitry Polyansky, said a report disputing the established account of events in Bucha, Ukraine, will be circulated to the OSCE, according to the Russian news agency TASS.

Polyansky said the report had already been presented in Moscow the previous week, though further details about its authors, methodology or specific claims were not included in the available remarks.

Bucha, a town near Kyiv, became the site of widely documented allegations of killings of civilians following the withdrawal of Russian forces in early 2022. International investigators, including those working with the United Nations and independent human rights organizations, have examined evidence from the town as part of broader inquiries into the conduct of the war in Ukraine. Russian officials have consistently denied responsibility for the killings and have previously described accounts of the events as fabricated.

It was not immediately clear when the report referenced by Polyansky would be formally presented to the OSCE or how the organization intended to respond.

The statement adds to a long-running dispute between Russian officials and Ukraine's Western allies over the characterization of events during the war, with Moscow repeatedly challenging findings that have been used to support allegations of war crimes.