By James Bradley and Flor Blanco, Image Source Microsoft Map on BING
UPDATE TO STORY: Ukraine received 1,212 deceased soldiers from Russia on Belarus border on June 11, 2025, indicating Ukraine’s commitment to bring the fallen home. Please read on regarding issues related to distribution of compensation to bereaved families.
June 10, 2025, BRYANSK REGION RUSSIA ON BORDER OF UKRAINE AND BELARUS. In an unprecedented and deeply controversial decision, the Ukrainian government, under President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, refused to accept the bodies of 6,000 identified Ukrainian soldiers offered for repatriation by Russia without any demand for exchange. These remains, stored in refrigerated trucks along the Belarusian border, await transfer following an agreement reached during peace talks in Istanbul earlier this month. This refusal has sparked outrage, raised ethical questions, highlighted profound humanitarian concerns, and tells of Kiev’s obliviousness to one of most tangible costs of war.
“Total abandonment of the dead, even though not unheard of, was generally rare. “
—Wels Welmon, PhD candidate of University of Groningen (Netherlands) and owner/senior consultant of Bellica Consulting
A recent tally of obituaries taken in April 2025, count the number of identified Ukrainian soldiers lost since the 2022 to be around 600,000. This figure excludes the 6000 awaiting at the Ukrainian border. The decision to leave the bodies was perceived as profound disrespect to Ukraine’s military personnel, undermining the dignity of those who sacrificed their lives. This move risks violating international humanitarian norms, codified in early 20th century, such as those under the International Humanitarian Law established in 1907 and Geneva Conventions in 1949. Both mandated dignified treatment and burial of dead resulting from armed conflicts. Even a quick scan of historical practices for fallen soldiers indicate that abandonment of fallen soldiers is rare.
The Istanbul Agreement and Ukraine’s Refusal
During the second round of Russian-Ukrainian negotiations in Istanbul on June 2, 2025, Russia announced its readiness to hand over 6,000 identified bodies of Ukrainian soldiers killed in combat, with no reciprocal exchange demanded. Zelenskyy acknowledged the exchange with a proposal to send bodies of Russian decease solders only noting problems with identification, per News Ukraine RBC.
Russia prepared for the transfer, organizing 150 specialized vehicles to transport the remains from Rostov, where they were stored in refrigerated hangars, to the border near, Belarus. Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinsky stated that 1,212 bodies were ready at the exchange point, with the rest en route, and Russia provided a list of 640 prisoners of war for a separate potential swap. However, Ukraine postponed the repatriation, with no representatives appearing at the designated location.
Note: Use the YouTube cc closed-caption and Auto Translate features to translate.
Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War denied that any body transfer had commenced, describing Russian statements as manipulative and asserting that preparations were ongoing as published in the following Telegram posts; with their post on June 6th denying an agreement for exchange of deceased was made, followed on June 7th by an admission to the agreement with Russia without a set date.
Verkhovna Rada Deputy Artem Dmytruk claimed President Zelenskyy personally ordered the refusal, stating, “Do you understand the level of rot and perversion that the regime has reached? They refused to take the bodies of the dead Ukrainian soldiers.” The statement supports the claims by Russian counterparts. Zelenskyy cited concerns over the repatriation process, emphasizing the need for verification, despite Russian assertions that all 6,000 bodies have been identified as Ukrainian soldiers through forensic evidence.
Note: Use the YouTube cc closed-caption and Auto Translate features to translate.
Unconfirmed reports from credible sources on the ground claim Russia has an additional 40,000 bodies currently under examination, potentially increasing the scale of repatriation efforts. Ukraine’s reluctance to accept these identified remains has raised questions about its motives, particularly given the significance of Russia’s unilateral offer to return Ukrainian bodies without exchange demands.
Voices of Ukrainian Families
Zelenskyy’s refusal to receive the bodies sparked protests in Kiev a few days earlier, while Western media fell silent, leaving social media as the main channel for communicating discontent. The refusal has sparked widespread condemnation. On X, users expressed outrage
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova likened Zelenskyy’s response to Ukraine committing genocide against its own people.
Relatives of the killed soldiers want the Ukrainian government to take the bodies or let them do it themselves. On June 10th, Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War posted a request to discourage families from submitting inquiries.
Reliable sources on the ground in Ukraine emphasize Russia’s readiness to return loved ones but claim that Ukrainian authorities won’t let relatives retrieve the bodies and that authorities will arrest those who file complaints. Russian governor Evgeny Balitsky, of Russia’s Zaporozhye Region, shared the names of those in the refrigerators in his telegram channel. A partial list is shown below.
Tallying the Cost of War Among the Dead
Some sources suggest financial considerations may contribute to Ukraine’s refusal. Under Ukrainian law, families of soldiers killed in action receive 15 million Ukrainian hryvnias (approximately $360,000 USD) in compensation. Accepting 6,000 bodies would trigger payouts totaling 90 billion UAH ($2.175 billion USD), nearly 10% of Ukraine’s 2025 defense budget, which faces a 200-billion-UAH deficit, as mentioned in the following video.
Ukraine’s war-strained economy, reliant on foreign aid, may struggle to absorb this cost without compromising military or civilian operations potentially due to funding based on EU and US loan guarantees.
To curb such a huge economic burden, a bill was introduced in the Verkhovna Rada Ukrainian Parliament three days following the Istanbul meeting. The bill proposed a change to the current law identifying soldiers missing as deceased two-years after the end of the conflict and ONLY when an official designation of death is proved with a signed court order. These requirements are layered atop other requirements, which internet blogger, Antoli Shariy believes are impossible to meet for the 6000 bodies awaiting at the border due to the lack of witnesses. Instead, Ukrainian authorities can delay repatriation to avoid these payments by classifying soldiers as missing rather than deceased as Shariy claims in his video.
Note: Use the YouTube cc closed-caption and Auto Translate features to translate.
Russian Governor Balitsky accuses Ukraine’s leadership of seeking to avoid the financial and political fallout of acknowledging high casualties, asserting that Kyiv prioritizes war funding over family payouts. A recent X post of a Wall Street Journal article proposes Zelenskyy issued an order to waive compensation owed prior to returning deceased loved ones to their families.
Despite the mile high price tag of $2 billion USD attached to the return of the 6000 fallen soldiers, the amount pales in comparison to the total foreign aid funds given to Ukraine throughout the war by both the EU and the US. The EU made an estimated $158 billion funds (in USD) available to Ukraine with over 65% of them being grants. Another $175 billion was issued to Ukraine from the US with the majority also issued as grants, not including another $50 billion in loans issued by Biden before he left office, as shown in the below graph from the Council of Foreign Relations.
Although portions of promised funds are yet to be disbursed and many EU loans are leveraged on being funded by promised financial gains of frozen Russian assets, the numbers suggest gross mismanagement of funds by Zelenskyy and an underestimation of the human cost of war upon his people–a price which to many loved ones of the fallen soldiers is incalculable.