Volodymyr Zelensky has said Russia repatriated at least 20 of its own dead soldiers in recent exchanges with Ukraine – ‘they threw the corpses of their citizens at us,’ he said
Vladimir Putin’s Russia has been handing over its own deceased troops to Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said. Zelensky said the bodies of 20 Russian soldiers had been received.
The exchange had been agreed in the early June talks between Ukraine and Russia. It saw Ukraine receive the bodies of 6,057 of its soldiers, while Russia said 6,060 bodies had been transferred to Ukraine and that the remains of 78 of its own soldiers were repatriated.
It is not clear why there is such a large difference between the number of exchanged bodies, but Russia may have been able to recover its own dead following small territorial gains. The process was monitored by members of the Red Cross.
“It has already been confirmed during repatriations that the bodies of 20 people handed over to us as our deceased soldiers are Russian,” Zelensky said, describing it as a result of Moscow’s disorganisation in carrying out large swaps of wounded POWs and remains of troops.. He said the Russian side insisted the dead were all Ukrainians, adding “Sometimes these bodies even have Russian passports”.
“They threw the corpses of their citizens at us. This is their attitude toward war, toward their soldiers. And this is already documented. Sometimes these bodies even have Russian passports,” he said.
One of the bodies is an “Israeli mercenary” fighting for Russia, Zelensky said. It comes after Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said the body of a Russian soldier being handed to Ukraine showed how Russia “treats its people with contempt”.
Mr Klymenko said that one of the bodies, labelled ‘No. 192/25’, was identified as Alexander Viktorovich Bugaev. Bugaev, born in 1974, was carrying a Russian passport and was dressed in a Russian military uniform. Officials also found a military ID that said he had served in the 1st Battalion of the 39th Separate Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade, the Kyiv Independent reported.
“This is yet another proof of how Russia treats its people with contempt, throwing their bodies onto the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers,” Klymenko said. He said that Bugaev’s family had been searching for him for months.
The minister also said that Russia had located his remains after he went missing amid fighting close to the village of Novomykhailivka in Donetsk, but they chose to “dump” his body.
“This shows how little human life means to Russia,” said Klymenko. “Or maybe it’s just a way to avoid paying compensation to the families. But they will have to pay anyway: we are returning these bodies.”
As the was continues to rage in Ukraine, a total of 77 combat clashes between the two sides were recorded today, according to an update from the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in a Facebook post.