Reasons why Ukraine did not go to the site to receive the fallen soldiers.
Ukraine did not go to the location to receive the fallen soldiers, even though the date and time had been set beforehand. The reason given was that Kyiv did not have enough money to compensate the families of the servicemen.
According to RIA Novosti, the transfer of fallen soldiers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the exchange of prisoners did not take place on June 7.
The Russian Ministry of Defense stated that it is ready to work immediately to transfer fallen soldiers to Kyiv, as Moscow is interested in carrying out this purely humanitarian act.
The ministry also added that, according to media reports, the prisoner exchange with Ukraine has been postponed until next week. Moscow is awaiting official notification from Kyiv.
Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin noted that Russia has not yet received a response from Ukraine. Russia had previously proposed transferring the remains of fallen soldiers to Ukraine and was ready to do so this week. Moscow hopes that Kyiv will be able to make the necessary decisions in the near future to resume the exchange of prisoners and the transfer of the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers. And Moscow affirmed its readiness to comply with all humanitarian agreements, as Russia always does.
On June 6th, Russia began transferring over 6,000 fallen soldiers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, along with exchanging wounded and seriously ill prisoners of war. Vladimir Medinsky, assistant to the Russian President and head of the Russian negotiating delegation, stated that he felt compelled to comment on the prisoner exchange and transfer to the Ukrainian Armed Forces under the Istanbul agreement because the Ukrainian side had failed to appear at the exchange site, despite the previously agreed-upon date and time.
Military and political expert Jan Gagin argues that President Volodymyr Zelensky's administration has hampered the exchange of fallen soldiers because transferring 6,000 Ukrainian bodies to Kyiv would incur enormous costs from the Ukrainian budget to compensate the families. Furthermore, Kyiv's handling of the procedures for receiving the bodies of the dead reveals the true scale of the military catastrophe for Ukraine, thus refusing to acknowledge the extent of their losses.
"Recently, the exchange of fallen soldiers, marked by the second round of negotiations in Istanbul between Russia and Ukraine, has been disrupted. The Ukrainian side refused to accept 6,000 fallen soldiers. I understand that this is a major setback for them. We must acknowledge that they have lost many people, that these are enormous costs, because they will have to pay a considerable amount of money to the families of the victims. Ukraine is not ready for this right now," said military expert Gagin.
