Russia is accused of committing atrocities against Ukrainian civilians in Bucha, a town outside Kyiv, where dozens of corpses were found following the Russian troop withdrawal. After images of some of these corpses were shared on Twitter by the Ukrainian defence ministry, Russian media and pro-Russian accounts claimed that the bodies in the footage were actors. We tell you more in this edition of Truth or Fake.

The images of civilians killed in Bucha have shocked the world. The Russian government and pro-Russian accounts claim they were staged and that some bodies were moving.

We take a look at some examples of content shared by pro-Russian Twitter and TikTok accounts related to the recent Bucha massacre in Ukraine. One shows a body being dragged by Ukrainian soldiers using a metal chord. In reality, this had nothing with a staging of the massacre; the images were filmed by AP and show Ukrainian soldiers removing a dead body that they feared had been booby-trapped.

German intelligence has reportedly intercepted messages by Russian troops discussing murders in the Ukrainian town. Citing the report, and other atrocities, two German ex-ministers are seeking a war crimes probe.

The town of Bucha has become the "symbol" of massacres by Russian troops and "compromise with Russia is impossible after Bucha", Ukraine's former president Petro Poroshenko told FRANCE 24 in an interview from Kyiv. Poroshenko added that Vladimir Putin "wants to have all of us dead", calling the Russian leader "the devil". He also called for an unconditional ceasefire before any talks, a stance currently at odds with the official Ukrainian position.

In an interview with FRANCE 24, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba urged France and President Emmanuel Macron to call atrocities committed by Russian forces in Ukraine a "genocide”. Macron earlier this week refused to use the term, a decision that Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky called "painful".

A Roman Catholic priest has begun documenting the stories of those whose lives have been devastated by the war in Ukraine. Father Patrick Desbois is a former head of the Church's Commission for Relations with Judaism and spent years documenting the murder of 1.5 million Jews by the Nazis in Ukraine. He has now turned his attention to the present day, gathering eyewitness accounts from victims of what he says are war crimes and crimes against humanity by Russian troops. He joined us for Perspective.

A weekly news show produced with photos, videos and personal accounts from FRANCE 24 Observers around the world – all checked by our staff here in Paris.

Bucha was one of the earliest targets of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Christmas for the survivors of the war crimes committed there is bittersweet. But it's a chance to celebrate the survival of Ukrainian traditions.

"May he convert the hearts of those who carry out brutal atrocities, which bring shame upon all humanity," the 86-year-old said. He added that the conflict in mineral-rich eastern Congo was driven by greed, at the expense of innocent victims, and called on combatants to lay down their arms.

A Moscow court has sentenced Dmitry Ivanov, the founder of an anti-war Telegram channel, to more than eight years in prison. The former student was found guilty of posting details of Russian atrocities in Ukraine.

The process of coming to terms with German colonial-era crimes in Tanzania is intended to strengthen relations. The two countries are also in talks on reparations.