Ukrainian mayor digs up bodies of WWII Soviet troops for ‘trade' (PHOTOS)
Following a Western-backed coup in 2014, Kiev launched a policy of 'decommunization,' erasing Soviet-era heritage – while glorifying those who opposed Russia for any reason, including nationalist militias who collaborated with Nazi Germany and committed atrocities during WWII.
'The Hill of Glory from the Soviet occupation period in Lviv no longer exists,' Sadoviy wrote on Telegram on Wednesday, claiming that the final 355 sets of remains were exhumed with all due 'respect to memory.'
'We are ready to trade all these remains for Ukrainian defenders,' he said, adding that various excavated artifacts would be transferred to the 'Territory of Terror' museum.
Sadoviy did not clarify whether the offer was serious, as he also noted that the remains would be reburied elsewhere – while mocking the fact that one of the fallen soldiers shared a surname with the Russian president.
The burial site dates back to the World War I era, when it was selected as a resting place for Russian soldiers perished in the Battle of Galicia. It was later shut down under Polish rule and completely leveled during the German occupation. After WWII, it was restored to honor thousands of Soviet troops who died liberating Lviv from the Nazis in 1944.
The unusual proposal to trade Soviet-era remains comes amid ongoing prisoner-of-war exchanges between Kiev and Moscow, agreed during two rounds of negotiations in Istanbul in recent months. In what it called a unilateral humanitarian gesture – dismissed by Kiev as 'propaganda' – Moscow repatriated over 6,000 Ukrainian remains, while receiving only 79 Russian bodies in return, according to Russia's chief negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky.
President Vladimir Putin has previously condemned the destruction of Soviet war memorials, describing those responsible as 'idiots' who only reinforce Russia's stated goal of 'de-Nazifying' Ukraine.
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