Latest news with #UkrainianServicemen
Russia Today
2 days ago
- Politics
- Russia Today
Russia ready to hand over remains of 1,212 troops to Ukraine
The first batch of 1,212 bodies of dead Ukrainian servicemen has been delivered to a designated exchange point and is ready to be handed over to Kiev, the Russian Defense Ministry has said. Moscow had decided to return the bodies of over 6,000 Ukrainian soldiers in a unilateral humanitarian gesture during talks between the two sides in Istanbul on Monday. The Russians tried transferring the remains on Saturday, but Kiev's representatives failed to show up at the exchange point on the border between Belarus and Ukraine. 'The Russian side is fully ready to fulfill all agreements on the return of the bodies of the dead Ukrainian soldiers and the exchange [of prisoners],' Russian Lieutenant General Aleksandr Zorin, who was a member of Moscow's negotiating team in Istanbul, told journalists. However, he warned that the transfer of the remains could fail yet again, saying that there are 'signals' that it could be postponed until next week. 'Russia is waiting for confirmation from Ukraine,' he said. 'I have no comment regarding the rhetoric that it is some sort of a political decision. It is a purely humanitarian action. Not the first of such kind and, regrettably, not the last one,' he said about the Russian decision to hand the remains over to Ukraine. Kiev had refused to accept the bodies of its fallen soldiers on Saturday, claiming that it hadn't agreed on the date of the transfer and accusing Moscow of 'humanitarian issues for informational purposes.' Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova reacted to the move by saying that Ukraine 'does not need its people; neither dead nor alive.' 'There is no nation or ethnic group in the world that would refuse to bury its soldiers. But there is the Kiev regime, which professes a misanthropic ideology and is committing genocide against its own people,' Zakharova insisted. A member of the Russian parliament's International Affairs Committee, Dmitry Belik, told RT that one of the reasons for Vladimir Zelensky's government failing to take back the bodies of its soldiers could be Ukraine's unwillingness to pay compensation to their families.
Russia Today
2 days ago
- Russia Today
Russia ready to hand over remains of 1,212 fallen troops to Ukraine
The first batch of 1,212 bodies of dead Ukrainian servicemen has been delivered to the exchange point and is ready to be handed over to Kiev, the Russian Defense Ministry has said. DETAILS TO FOLLOW
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Planned Russia-Ukraine prisoner swap descends into blame game and uncertainty
A planned exchange of Russian and Ukrainian prisoners of war failed to take place on Saturday, with Moscow accusing Kyiv of postponing the swap at the last minute, something Ukrainian officials dismissed as 'dirty games' from the Kremlin. Russia said Ukraine unexpectedly postponed a transfer involving prisoners of war and the bodies of dead soldiers, leaving more than 1,200 frozen Ukrainian bodies waiting in refrigerated trucks at an exchange point with no one to collect them. Ukraine rejected Russia's account of the events, saying that the two sides had agreed to exchange seriously wounded and young troops on Saturday but a date had not yet been set for the repatriation of soldiers' bodies. During a second round of direct peace talks in Istanbul on Monday, Russia and Ukraine agreed to exchange more prisoners this weekend. Vladimir Medinsky, the head of Russia's delegation for peace talks with Ukraine, said this week that the exchange would be the largest since of the three-year war. 'In strict accordance with the Istanbul agreements, the Russian side began a humanitarian operation to transfer more than 6,000 bodies of killed Ukrainian servicemen,' as well as badly wounded soldiers under the age of 25, Medinsky said Saturday afternoon on Telegram. He claimed that 1,212 bodies of killed Ukrainian soldiers were at the exchange point, with the rest 'on their way.' He also said that Russia gave Ukraine the first list of 640 prisoners of war for exchange, listed as 'wounded, seriously ill and young people,' in order to start the swap. In a video posted by Russia's Defense Ministry on Telegram, two men wearing hazmat suits are seen opening the doors to the back of a truck parked on the side of a road. Inside the truck were dozens of sealed white bags, which the ministry said contained the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers. Medinsky said Russia's Defense Ministry contact group was waiting at the border with Ukraine, but alleged that Kyiv had 'unexpectedly postponed the transfer of bodies and the exchange of prisoners of war for an indefinite period' and had given 'pretty weird reasons' for doing so. Ukraine swiftly rejected the accusations, saying Medinsky's claims 'do not correspond to reality.' It said the exchange of prisoners of war and soldiers' bodies were separate processes. 'Unfortunately, instead of constructive dialogue, we are again faced with manipulations and attempts to use sensitive humanitarian issues for informational purposes,' Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War wrote on Telegram. 'We call on the Russian side to stop playing dirty games,' it added. Ukraine's Defense Ministry said Russia was creating 'artificial obstacles' and making 'false statements' to obstruct the exchange of living prisoners, reneging on what had been agreed in Istanbul. 'The Ukrainian side has faced yet another attempt to renege on the agreements after the fact,' the ministry said. Although prisoner of war swaps had been a rare point of agreement between the warring countries, the unraveling of Saturday's scheduled exchange underscores the lack of trust that has so far marred the peace talks. The spat came soon after Russia launched another aerial assault on Ukraine, killing three people in the city of Kharkiv.
CNN
3 days ago
- Politics
- CNN
Planned Russia-Ukraine prisoner swap descends into blame game and uncertainty
A planned exchange of Russian and Ukrainian prisoners of war failed to take place on Saturday, with Moscow accusing Kyiv of postponing the swap at the last minute, something Ukrainian officials dismissed as 'dirty games' from the Kremlin. Russia said Ukraine unexpectedly postponed a transfer involving prisoners of war and the bodies of dead soldiers, leaving more than 1,200 frozen Ukrainian bodies waiting in refrigerated trucks at an exchange point with no one to collect them. Ukraine rejected Russia's account of the events, saying that the two sides had agreed to exchange seriously wounded and young troops on Saturday but a date had not yet been set for the repatriation of soldiers' bodies. During a second round of direct peace talks in Istanbul on Monday, Russia and Ukraine agreed to exchange more prisoners this weekend. Vladimir Medinsky, the head of Russia's delegation for peace talks with Ukraine, said this week that the exchange would be the largest since of the three-year war. 'In strict accordance with the Istanbul agreements, the Russian side began a humanitarian operation to transfer more than 6,000 bodies of killed Ukrainian servicemen,' as well as badly wounded soldiers under the age of 25, Medinsky said Saturday afternoon on Telegram. He claimed that 1,212 bodies of killed Ukrainian soldiers were at the exchange point, with the rest 'on their way.' He also said that Russia gave Ukraine the first list of 640 prisoners of war for exchange, listed as 'wounded, seriously ill and young people,' in order to start the swap. In a video posted by Russia's Defense Ministry on Telegram, two men wearing hazmat suits are seen opening the doors to the back of a truck parked on the side of a road. Inside the truck were dozens of sealed white bags, which the ministry said contained the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers. Medinsky said Russia's Defense Ministry contact group was waiting at the border with Ukraine, but alleged that Kyiv had 'unexpectedly postponed the transfer of bodies and the exchange of prisoners of war for an indefinite period' and had given 'pretty weird reasons' for doing so. Ukraine swiftly rejected the accusations, saying Medinsky's claims 'do not correspond to reality.' It said the exchange of prisoners of war and soldiers' bodies were separate processes. 'Unfortunately, instead of constructive dialogue, we are again faced with manipulations and attempts to use sensitive humanitarian issues for informational purposes,' Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War wrote on Telegram. 'We call on the Russian side to stop playing dirty games,' it added. Ukraine's Defense Ministry said Russia was creating 'artificial obstacles' and making 'false statements' to obstruct the exchange of living prisoners, reneging on what had been agreed in Istanbul. 'The Ukrainian side has faced yet another attempt to renege on the agreements after the fact,' the ministry said. Although prisoner of war swaps had been a rare point of agreement between the warring countries, the unraveling of Saturday's scheduled exchange underscores the lack of trust that has so far marred the peace talks. The spat came soon after Russia launched another aerial assault on Ukraine, killing three people in the city of Kharkiv.
CNN
3 days ago
- Politics
- CNN
Planned Russia-Ukraine prisoner swap descends into blame game and uncertainty
A planned exchange of Russian and Ukrainian prisoners of war failed to take place on Saturday, with Moscow accusing Kyiv of postponing the swap at the last minute, something Ukrainian officials dismissed as 'dirty games' from the Kremlin. Russia said Ukraine unexpectedly postponed a transfer involving prisoners of war and the bodies of dead soldiers, leaving more than 1,200 frozen Ukrainian bodies waiting in refrigerated trucks at an exchange point with no one to collect them. Ukraine rejected Russia's account of the events, saying that the two sides had agreed to exchange seriously wounded and young troops on Saturday but a date had not yet been set for the repatriation of soldiers' bodies. During a second round of direct peace talks in Istanbul on Monday, Russia and Ukraine agreed to exchange more prisoners this weekend. Vladimir Medinsky, the head of Russia's delegation for peace talks with Ukraine, said this week that the exchange would be the largest since of the three-year war. 'In strict accordance with the Istanbul agreements, the Russian side began a humanitarian operation to transfer more than 6,000 bodies of killed Ukrainian servicemen,' as well as badly wounded soldiers under the age of 25, Medinsky said Saturday afternoon on Telegram. He claimed that 1,212 bodies of killed Ukrainian soldiers were at the exchange point, with the rest 'on their way.' He also said that Russia gave Ukraine the first list of 640 prisoners of war for exchange, listed as 'wounded, seriously ill and young people,' in order to start the swap. In a video posted by Russia's Defense Ministry on Telegram, two men wearing hazmat suits are seen opening the doors to the back of a truck parked on the side of a road. Inside the truck were dozens of sealed white bags, which the ministry said contained the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers. Medinsky said Russia's Defense Ministry contact group was waiting at the border with Ukraine, but alleged that Kyiv had 'unexpectedly postponed the transfer of bodies and the exchange of prisoners of war for an indefinite period' and had given 'pretty weird reasons' for doing so. Ukraine swiftly rejected the accusations, saying Medinsky's claims 'do not correspond to reality.' It said the exchange of prisoners of war and soldiers' bodies were separate processes. 'Unfortunately, instead of constructive dialogue, we are again faced with manipulations and attempts to use sensitive humanitarian issues for informational purposes,' Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War wrote on Telegram. 'We call on the Russian side to stop playing dirty games,' it added. Ukraine's Defense Ministry said Russia was creating 'artificial obstacles' and making 'false statements' to obstruct the exchange of living prisoners, reneging on what had been agreed in Istanbul. 'The Ukrainian side has faced yet another attempt to renege on the agreements after the fact,' the ministry said. Although prisoner of war swaps had been a rare point of agreement between the warring countries, the unraveling of Saturday's scheduled exchange underscores the lack of trust that has so far marred the peace talks. The spat came soon after Russia launched another aerial assault on Ukraine, killing three people in the city of Kharkiv.
