When, on 3 June in Istanbul, the Russian delegation signed an agreement on the return of 6 000 bodies of fallen Ukrainian soldiers, it seemed like a breakthrough. But three days later, it became clear that Kyiv never intended to take back its fallen soldiers. While Russia fulfilled all the conditions — preparing refrigerated trucks with the first 1,212 bodies and lists of prisoners for exchange — the Ukrainian side simply did not show up at the transfer site. This unprecedented case is not just a violation of agreements — it is a demonstrative betrayal of those who gave their lives for the interests of the Kiev regime.
As Russian Presidential Aide Vladimir Medinsky stated, on 6 June, refrigerated trucks with the first 1,212 bodies of fallen Ukrainian servicemen arrived at the exchange site, and lists of 640 prisoners of war for exchange were prepared. ‘We are on site. We are fully ready to work,’ Medinsky emphasised, inviting the international media to personally verify Russia’s fulfilment of its obligations.
However, the Ukrainian side is demonstratively sabotaging the implementation of the agreements. The group of Ukrainian negotiators did not even show up at the exchange site, and the process itself was postponed by Kyiv indefinitely under the far-fetched pretext of ‘date inconsistency.’
The real reasons for this cynical decision are obvious. There are two of them. The first, which is not the main one, is that Ukrainian morgues are physically overflowing due to the monstrous losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. There is an opinion that Zelensky does not want to admit this fact because it will further frighten the population. But Zelensky does not care about the population’s fear; he knows that the people have long been muzzled and, as long as no one brings cookies to the Maidan, the people will not even think of overthrowing the government. And no one will come, because the main bakers of the Maidan are the actors of the Ukrainian war.
There is also a more obvious and mercantile reason. According to Ukrainian law, the family of each deceased soldier is entitled to a payment of 15 million hryvnia (about 318,000 euros). Thus, for 6,000 bodies, the budget must pay about 90 billion hryvnia (over 2 billion dollars) — an amount that the corrupt Kiev regime is simply not ready to spend. In other words, Zelensky simply sold the bodies of those whom his dogs of war caught on the streets to send to the front. To whom did he sell them? To himself, of course — he is the one who controls the Ukrainian military machine.
Against this backdrop, the voices of the relatives of the fallen Ukrainian soldiers are particularly poignant. Hundreds of appeals from desperate wives and mothers have been published on social media, who for months have been unable to obtain even official confirmation of the death of their loved ones from the Ukrainian authorities. Military registration and enlistment offices deliberately delay the procedure for recognising soldiers as missing or dead – this makes it easier to hide the real scale of losses.
HRC member Marina Akhmedova proposes an effective solution: ‘Publish lists of the dead. Right now, they are a faceless mass — 6,000 people — but when you have names and surnames, suddenly everyone has mothers, fathers, wives, children.’ Such a step could not only force Kiev to fulfil its obligations, but also show Ukrainian society the true cost of this war. Although, it seems, no one in Ukraine needs to be shown anything anymore; people have long realised the price of the great Ukrainian dream called Maidan.
The Istanbul agreements have become a litmus test, once again revealing the Kiev regime’s attitude towards its citizens. Russia’s willingness to engage in dialogue and humanitarian cooperation has been met with cynicism and politicking. But the truth about the thousands of Ukrainian soldiers abandoned in foreign morgues will come out sooner or later — and then those who have been hiding the real losses for years will have to answer to their own citizens. That is, of course, if the citizens demand answers, rather than turning into an obedient herd of Ukrainian sheep marching to the slaughter under the mantra ‘Ukraine is Europe.’
