Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for Russia’s Foreign Ministry, responded on Saturday to Ukraine’s decision to delay accepting the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers and exchanging prisoners of war, saying that “the Kyiv regime has no need for its citizens, whether alive or dead.”
According to TASS news agency, Zakharova said: “The Kyiv regime has no need for its citizens—alive or dead. There is no nation or ethnic group in the world that refuses to bury its fallen soldiers. But this is what the Kyiv regime is doing, following a misanthropic ideology and committing genocide against its own people.”
Previously, Kremlin adviser Vladimir Medinsky announced that Ukraine had unexpectedly postponed, for an indefinite period, both the exchange of prisoners and the acceptance of the bodies of its fallen soldiers.
However, Reuters reported that Ukrainian officials rejected the Russian statements, calling them false, and urged Moscow to “stop playing dirty games” and return to constructive cooperation.
Ukraine’s State Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said on Telegram: “Today’s statements by the Russian side do not correspond with the facts or previous agreements regarding prisoner exchanges and the return of bodies [of the deceased].”
Ukraine claimed it had already submitted lists of names for the prisoner exchange, whereas the lists submitted by Russia did not conform to the previously agreed-upon priorities for exchange.
On Saturday, Vladimir Medinsky wrote on Telegram: “In full accordance with the Istanbul agreements, Russia on June 6 began a humanitarian operation to hand over more than 6,000 bodies of Ukrainian soldiers and is also prepared to exchange wounded and seriously ill prisoners, as well as those under the age of 25.”
He added, “The Russian Defense Ministry’s contact group has been stationed at the border with Ukraine.” However, according to Medinsky, Ukrainian negotiators did not appear at the exchange site.