The Bucha massacre was not a 'false flag' event carried out by NATO foreign mercenaries

What is the claim?

In March 2022, Russian troops occupied the Ukrainian town of Bucha, outside of Kyiv, in the early stages of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. After the nearly month-long occupation and the withdrawal of Russian troops, footage of Russian atrocities against the civilian population was disclosed to the wider public. 

In July 2024, claims about the authenticity of the Bucha massacre and NATO's involvement started to re-circulate online. These posts were shared with the caption, "NATO's foreign mercenaries carried out the false-flag Bucha massacre" (examples archived here, here and here) and provided a link to an article by the Strategic Culture Foundation (archived here.)

The Strategic Culture Foundation is a Russia-based online journal. Multiple individuals connected to the journal were sanctioned by the U.S. and the U.K., among others, for spreading false information about Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The Bucha massacre genuinely happened, and Logically Facts found no evidence of NATO's involvement in it.

What did we find?

The Strategic Culture Foundation article, published on July 21, says it "proves" the participation of NATO's foreign mercenaries in the Bucha massacre by the testimony of a "Czech mercenary," Filip Siman, who, according to the article, fought in the International Legion for the Defence of Ukraine.

Old and erroneous narratives of NATO's involvement in Ukraine

The article falsely claims that NATO commands the Infantry Battalion and International Legion for the Defence of Ukraine.

"There are no soldiers under NATO command in Ukraine," a NATO official told Logically Facts.

NATO also does not have an army or a force of mercenaries to send abroad; the International Legion is not a NATO battalion or under NATO's command. The website for the International Legion for the Defence of Ukraine states, "Battalions of the International Legion are a structural part of the Land Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine." Moreover, under international law, foreign nationals fighting for the foreign legion are regular soldiers of the Ukrainian military, not mercenaries.

When asked why Russia continues to push false narratives of NATO's involvement in the war in Ukraine, Dr. Joanna Szostek, Senior Lecturer in politics at the University of Glasgow, told Logically Facts, "Russia uses the ideas of 'NATO expansion' and NATO 'directing' the war to justify its invasion and occupation of Ukraine. Russia argues that NATO is threatening Russia by using Ukraine as a 'proxy.'"

"NATO at present is not offering membership to Ukraine; Ukrainians are fighting for themselves, not on behalf of any foreign powers," Szostek continued. "But narratives blaming NATO help Russia to legitimize its actions, because anti-NATO sentiment exists internationally on certain parts of the political spectrum, and so some people are inclined to believe criticisms of NATO, and blame NATO rather than Russia for the loss of Ukrainian lives."

The Bucha massacre was not a 'false flag' operation

There is no evidence that the Bucha massacre was staged or a "false flag" event. Various investigative journalist reports, verified images and videos, and local testimonies affirm the event took place. Moreover, all the evidence in the reports corroborates that the Russian forces were behind the attacks on the civilian population despite Russia's continued effort to refute it. The Russian authorities called the massacre a "staged performance" by Ukraine. 

"It is a common Russian tactic to muddy the waters or exhaust the information space with tens of different versions of what happened to avoid responsibility and persuade people who are not following the story closely that 'the truth is contested,'" Roman Osadchuk, a research associate at the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab), explained to Logically Facts. "At the same time, these messages allow Russia-aligned commenters to throw these claims as facts to justify Russia's actions."

"Russian propaganda and narratives have various goals. One goal is to reduce all kinds of support for Ukraine, and to convince international audiences that Ukraine should just hand over territory and give in to Russian demands. Some analysts also believe that Russia tries to encourage divisions within the societies of democratic countries, to weaken them," Dr. Szostek disclosed to Logically Facts. 

Logically Facts also found that a Czech national, Filip Siman, is on trial for looting and did not have the permission of the President of Czechia to fight in a foreign army, according to Czech reports (translated from Czech). These local reports of the court case do not, however, make any reference to Siman stating the Bucha massacre was a "false flag" or that NATO was involved in it. 

The verdict

There is no evidence that NATO was involved in the Bucha massacre. NATO has no military presence in Ukraine, nor does it have ground troops to send abroad. The Bucha massacre did happen; it was not a false flag operation. Reports, investigations, and visual footage affirm that the massacre took place in March 2022. Therefore, we marked the claim as false.