Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman says Kiev doesn’t value its people, dead or alive.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has accused Ukraine of “self-genocide” for failing to retrieve the bodies of its deceased soldiers, claiming Kiev is neglecting its citizens in both life and death.
Following discussions in Istanbul on Monday, Moscow decided to return the remains of over 6,000 Ukrainian soldiers as a unilateral humanitarian gesture. However, according to Russia’s chief negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, the Ukrainian team did not appear at the designated exchange point on the Belarus-Ukraine border when the first group of bodies was delivered on Saturday.
Zakharova criticized Vladimir Zelensky’s government’s alleged inaction in a Telegram post on Saturday, stating that it “does not need its people; neither dead nor alive.”
“No nation or ethnic group in the world would refuse to bury its soldiers. But the Kiev regime, which professes a misanthropic ideology, is committing genocide against its own people,” Zakharova wrote.
Russian MP Dmitry Belik, a member of the State Duma’s International Affairs Committee, told RT that Ukraine’s reluctance to pay compensation to the families could be a reason for not accepting the bodies.
“Thinking of how to stuff their own wallets and not give a penny to their citizens – the Kiev regime, led by Zelensky, pursues its bloody policy and destroys its own people,” Belik stated.
Former Pentagon analyst Michael Maloof also suggested financial concerns could be behind Ukraine’s decision. “I think they are embarrassed by the numbers,” he told RT. “I’ve heard sums up around more than a billion dollars that they would have to repay to families – and they don’t have the money,” he added.
Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the Russian parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, told RT that the Ukrainian authorities’ action demonstrates “rare cynicism and a disregard for the memory of their own fallen servicemen.”
“In a war to the last Ukrainian, they are exclusively focused on preserving their own power, even at the cost of actual sacrilege,” Slutsky said.
Kiev has stated that the transfer date for the remains had not been agreed upon as the reason for refusing to collect them.
“`