UPDATE - France summons Russian envoy over 'misinformation' on Bucha atrocities

UPDATES WITH INTERIOR MINISTER'S STATEMENT

By Shweta Desai

PARIS (AA) – France on Thursday said it would summon the Russian ambassador in Paris for spreading "indecent and provocative" propaganda on the atrocities in the Ukrainian town of Bucha.

"We will continue to fight against all Russian manipulation of information on the war in Ukraine," Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Twitter regarding his decision to summon Alexei Meshkov.

The Macron government is also sending a delegation of French gendarmes and magistrates to witness first-hand the sites of massacres, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said.

"The President (Emmanuel Macron) has asked us to send gendarmes and magistrates with the justice minister to Ukraine in order to help our Ukrainian friends and to observe the massacres that have taken place," he told BFMTV news in response to the propaganda of the Russian Embassy on Bucha.

The official social media account of the Russian Embassy in France has been accused by the Macron government of posting provocative, false information and engaging in misinformation warfare.

This time the post which provoked the ire of the Foreign Ministry was related to Bucha that was liberated last week by the Ukrainian military. Images from the place that was under the siege of Russian armed forces showed scores of civilians were killed and their bodies thrown in the open, residential houses were ransacked and buildings destroyed.

Ukrainian President Voldoymyr Zelenskyy argued the abuses committed against innocent civilians constitute "war crimes."

France has held the Russian army responsible for the crimes.

On Wednesday evening, the Twitter account of the Russian Embassy in France posted an alleged photo of Bucha, which it claimed was a staged shoot on the film set. It showed journalists and photographers armed with cameras documenting the scenes from the ravaged city.

The photo in question was originally published by the Ukrainian media outlet Vechirniy along with a series of other images of destruction, with the headline: "They leveled it to the ground: What Bucha's main street looks like today after large-scale battles"

At the UN, Russia accused Ukrainians of "staging" the killings to derail the ongoing negotiations and damage Moscow's reputation on the international stage.

The Russian Embassy's French social media account has posted several photos, videos and interviews of experts and politicians alluding that there are inconsistencies in the testimonies of Ukrainian people on ground and that the atrocities in Bucha are not committed by Russia.