West may be plotting new staged massacre in Ukraine, Russian diplomat in Vienna says

VIENNA, May 13. /TASS/. Recent meetings between NATO officials and film directors, script writers and producers from Brussels, Los Angeles and Paris lead one to believe that the North Atlantic Alliance is plotting another staged massacre in Ukraine, said head of the Russian delegation at the Vienna talks on military security and arms control Yulia Zhdanova. "We have noticed reports saying that NATO officials yesterday held three meetings with film directors, script writers and producers active in the film industry in Brussels, Los Angeles and Paris, and that a meeting with members of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain (WGGB) is scheduled for next week," the Russian diplomat said. "The letter sent to those invited to these events mentions `three projects’ currently being developed. NATO countries may be preparing another staged massacre, say, a la the staged provocation in Bucha in 2022," she surmised. Zhdanova bemoaned NATO’s meetings with these cinema professionals amid humanitarian initiatives put forward by the Russian and US leaders, now that there is a real possibility of putting an end to the Ukraine conflict, given its root causes are removed. "Some member countries of the alliance once used the Bucha staged incident to prevent peace from happening, extend the conflict `forever’ and put pressure on other Western allies to force them into sending weapons to Ukraine," the diplomat concluded. On March 30, 2022, the Russian Armed Forces, as a gesture of goodwill amid negotiations with Ukraine in Istanbul, withdrew from the Kiev area, including the city of Bucha. On March 31, 2022, this was confirmed on camera by the head of the local administration. Several days later, Western TV channels released footage showing -- unlike earlier recordings -- bodies of people lying on the streets of the city, whose killings were immediately attributed to Russian servicemen by the West. In Russia, a criminal case has been opened over the provocation concerning the dissemination of knowingly false information about the Russian Armed Forces, Medvedev concluded.