Vladimir Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov denied Russia has carried out war crimes in Ukraine but he admitted the country had suffered “significant” losses of troops.
Peskov told Sky News we are “living in a days of fakes and lies” but admitted the “significant” loss of Russian troops is a “tragedy”.
He told the broadcaster in his first Western broadcast interview: “We have significant losses of troops and it’s a huge tragedy for us.”
Presenter Mark Austin questioned Peskov on the devastating scenes of dead civilians in Ukraine amid global outrage.
He asked him: “How do you sleep at night?”
Peskov replied: “It’s not about my sleep at night, actually. This is about Ukrainian military and Ukrainian personnel trying to use civil people as a shield. They are covering themselves with civil people and not letting them flee the town.”
He claimed that verified photos and satellite images of dead civilians in the streets of Ukrainian cities were a “bold fake”.
Austin asked: “Do you realise how grotesque that sounds?”
Peskov insisted the whole situation in Bucha, where pictures show as many as 400 murdered Ukrainian civilians, was a “well-staged insinuation, nothing else”.
“We deny the Russian military can have something in common with these atrocities and that dead bodies were shown on the streets of Bucha,” he claimed.
Peskov said from the beginning of Russia’s war with Ukraine, Kremlin forces never shelled civilian targets.
“They were just aiming and using high precision missiles to attack military infrastructure in Ukraine,” he added.
Peskov expressed hope that in coming days Russia would reach its goals or a negotiation would be reached.
Austin asks Dmitry Peskov what his message would be to Boris Johnson.
Peskov said: “Well, he’s very loud in his rhetoric about Russia - from the very beginning of the operation.
“So in our understanding, he is rather not constructive in his attitude. We have never heard any similar rhetoric coming from Boris Johnson during the last eight years when people in Donbas were killed by Ukrainian nationalists, when they were heavily bombarded and shelled by heavy artillery.
“We have never heard a word coming from Mr Johnson.”
Russia has been suspended from the UN’s top human rights body over allegations of horrific war crimes in Ukraine, including the rape and murder of civilians.
The UN General Assembly voted Thursday to suspend Russia from the Human Rights Council over horrific acts committed by Putin’s troops in Bucha and elsewhere.
