Russia transfers remains of Ukrainian soldiers to border despite uncertainty over agreed prisoner swap

Russia has delivered the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers killed in action to the Russian-Ukrainian border, in accordance with an agreement made during the second round of face-to-face negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv in Istanbul on Monday, despite the apparent postponement of a major prisoner of war exchange that was due to take place this weekend.

General Alexander Zorin, a member of the Russian delegation to the Istanbul talks, said in a video shared by state-owned news agency TASS on Sunday that the first consignment of some 1,212 bodies of Ukrainian servicemen had been transported to the site of the planned exchange, adding that Russia was awaiting Ukraine’s confirmation that it still planned to go through with the swap.

The general’s comments came following the apparent cancellation of the planned swap and repatriation of servicemen’s bodies on Saturday, with Ukraine and Russia trading blame for the change of plan.

Vladimir Medinsky, who leads Russia’s delegation to the Istanbul talks, wrote on his Telegram channel that the agreement had been postponed “for an indefinite period” after Kyiv had unilaterally failed to “adhere to the schedule” for reasons he described as “various and rather strange”.

According to Medinsky, Moscow began transferring the bodies of over 6,000 Ukrainian servicemen on 6 June and handed over a list of 640 “wounded, seriously ill and young” POWs in order to begin an exchange, while Kyiv “did not even arrive at the exchange site”.

Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War accused Russia of attempting to alter the terms of the exchange retroactively and noted that while Ukraine had submitted a list of wounded, ill, and young prisoners to be swapped, Russia had failed to do so.

“Russia’s statements do not correspond with reality [nor] previous agreements regarding either the exchange of prisoners or the repatriation of bodies”, it said on Saturday

Ukraine’s Defence Ministry also said that Russia was backtracking on “clear promises” it had made in Istanbul and was creating “artificial obstacles” and making “false statements” in order to avoid allowing Ukrainian POWs to return home.

On 2 June, following the conclusion of the latest round of negotiations in Istanbul, Russia and Ukraine agreed to a major prisoner exchange, covering severely injured POWs and those between the ages of 18 and 25. Both sides also agreed to repatriate the bodies of 6,000 enemy combatants.