Ukraine fails to show at exchange location, prompting Russian rebukes
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Ukraine draws widespread condemnations from Russian officials after failing to appear at the agreed-upon location for the POW and deceased soldiers exchange.
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Spokeswoman of Russia's Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova speaks to the media after a joint press conference of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and OSCE Secretary General Feridun Sinirlioglu in Moscow, Russia, on Tuesday, March 11, 2025 (AP)
Russia is currently expecting to receive formal notifications from Ukraine regarding the reported delay in the exchange of prisoners and deceased bodies, which is said to have been rescheduled for the following week, according to Lieutenant General Alexander Zorin, who serves as the representative of the Russian negotiating team.
"We have seen reports from Ukrainian and international media claiming that the operation has allegedly been postponed until next week. We are awaiting official communications on this matter," Zorin stated, according to TASS on Saturday.
"We are ready to proceed right now, since the bodies are located very near the exchange point, and we are committed to fulfilling this purely humanitarian operation, which was agreed upon during the second round of Russian-Ukrainian negotiations in Istanbul," he added.
Zorin stated that Russia had transferred the initial group of deceased Ukrainian servicemen to the agreed exchange location, fully adhering to the terms outlined in the Istanbul agreements.
"The Russian side, in exact compliance with the Istanbul agreements from June 2, delivered to the exchange location the first group of deceased Ukrainian servicemen - 1,212 bodies in total. In line with the schedule agreed upon in Istanbul, we fulfilled this task. Unfortunately, no one from the Ukrainian side made contact today, and the exchange did not take place," he stated.
Ukraine's failure to comply with the agreed-upon terms of the Istanbul talks has drawn widespread condemnations from Russian officials.
Ukraine could be cursed if they don't recover soldiers' bodies: Zakharova
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova stated on Saturday that Ukrainian authorities would face a generational curse if they failed to recover the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers who died in combat.
"If only they dare not to reclaim them [the bodies]. They will be cursed for generations to come! It's just beyond the limits, because the living - they can do something, make decisions, think about something, somehow change the situation. And the dead can't," Zakharova said in an interview for the Belarus 1 channel.
She added that different countries and cultures have their own burial and funeral procedures, "but to abandon your own people? I don't know [anything about it]."
Earlier in the day, Vladimir Medinsky, a Russian presidential aide and head of the Russian delegation in talks with Ukraine, stated that Russia had begun the process of repatriating more than 6,000 bodies of Ukrainian soldiers, as well as facilitating the exchange of prisoners of war, under the agreements reached during the negotiations in Istanbul on June 2.
Medinsky was forced to address the situation after the Ukrainian side failed to appear at the agreed-upon exchange location despite the date being confirmed in advance.
Kiev avoids reclaiming bodies to hide losses, evade compensations: Medvedev
On Saturday, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said that Kiev is refusing to retrieve the bodies of fallen Ukrainian soldiers to conceal the true scale of casualties and avoid providing compensation to the families of the deceased.
"The Kiev bastards don't want to take the bodies of their dead soldiers. There are two reasons: it's scary to admit that there are 6,000 of them and they don't want to pay widows," Medvedev stated on X.
The Kiev bastards don't want to take the bodies of their dead soldiers. There are two reasons: it's scary to admit that there are 6,000 of them and they don't want to pay widows. What Satanic scum! Burn them in hell!
— Dmitry Medvedev (@MedvedevRussiaE) June 7, 2025
