A viral claim suggesting that massacre in Bucha, Ukraine, was staged by crisis actors as the 'dead bodies' were seen moving is found to be fake. The claim originated after a a low-quality video clip emerged on social media showing the moving hands of a corpse lying in the street.
Following the backlash from around the world, several pro-Russian social media accounts are sharing the videos and images of the dead bodies claiming that it was staged by the Ukrainians.
Are the Dead Bodies Moving Around in Bucha?
A slow motion video shot from a moving car shows shows mobile dead bodies lying in the streets of Bucha. At one point a body is seen moving its hands as anther rolls over.
Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had also claimed that footage of bodies in Bucha was "staged" following the withdrawal of Russian forces on March 30.
Another claim related to a 'dead body' lying on the pavement with red and yellow stones and shattered brown fencing, suddenly sitting up as the car drives by it.
BBC reported that in a tweet, Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote about the bodies not getting stiffened. "It is of particular worry that all the bodies of the people whose images have been published by the Kiev regime are not stiffened after at least four days," read the tweet.
Here is the Truth
Debunking the claim being made on the basis of viral video, AP reported that the original video shows the bodies were not moving. "The so-called hand movement shows a mark on the car's windshield, while the other portion of the video shows a distortion from the side-view mirror," reported the outlet.
In a communique to the outlet, Hany Farid, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who reviewed the video said that there is no sign about the body getting moved.
"What we are seeing is rain on the windshield that just happens to align with the body in the road. As for the portion from the side-view mirror, the video is so badly distorted due to the car motion, rain, and video compression, that it is impossible to even plausibly claim the body is moving," Farid stated.
BBC reported that the satellite image shows the corpses lying in the streets of Bucha nearly two weeks before the Russians withdrawal.
