Ukraine accuses Russia of ‘dirty games’ in planned swap of dead troops

Russia and Ukraine each accused the other on Saturday of endangering plans to swap 6,000 bodies of soldiers killed in action

A handout photo made available by the press service of the 65th Separate Mechanised Brigade of Ukrainian Armed Forces shows servicemen of the 65th Separate Mechanised Brigade passing military training on a shooting range amid the ongoing Russian invasion, in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, 22 May 2025 (EPA)

Russian officials stated on Sunday that they are still waiting for official confirmation from Kyiv regarding a planned exchange of 6,000 bodies of soldiers killed in action. They reiterated claims that Ukraine had postponed the swap.

Russian state media quoted Lt. Gen. Alexander Zorin, a representative of the Russian negotiating group, as saying that Russia delivered the first batch of 1,212 bodies of Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers to the exchange site at the border. Zorin added that they are waiting for confirmation from the Ukrainian side, but that there are "signals" that the process of transferring the bodies will be postponed until next week.

Russia and Ukraine each accused the other on Saturday of endangering plans to swap 6,000 bodies of soldiers killed in action, which was agreed upon during direct talks in Istanbul on Monday that otherwise made no progress toward ending the war.

Vladimir Medinsky, a Putin aide who led the Russian delegation, said that Kyiv called a last-minute halt to an imminent swap. In a Telegram post Saturday, Medinsky said that refrigerated trucks carrying more than 1,200 bodies of Ukrainian troops from Russia had already reached the agreed exchange site at the border when the news came.

Vladimir Medinsky, head of the Russian delegation, arrives to deliver a statement to the press after a second round of direct talks between Ukrainian and Russian delegations in Istanbul, on June 2, 2025. Russia proposed a partial ceasefire of "two to three days" at talks with Ukraine in Istanbul on June 2, Moscow's top negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said. (Photo by Yasin AKGUL / AFP) (Photo by YASIN AKGUL/AFP via Getty Images) (AFP/Getty)

In response, Ukraine said Russia was playing “dirty games” and manipulating facts. According to the main Ukrainian authority dealing with such swaps, no date had been set for repatriating the bodies. In a statement Saturday, the agency also accused Russia of submitting lists of prisoners of war for repatriation that didn’t correspond to agreements reached on Monday.

It wasn’t immediately possible to reconcile the conflicting claims.

In other developments, one person was killed and another seriously wounded in Russian aerial strikes on the eastern Ukrainian Kharkiv region. These strikes came after Russian attacks targeting the regional capital, also called Kharkiv, killed at least four people and wounded more than two dozen others on Saturday.

Russia fired a total of 49 exploding drones and decoys and three missiles overnight, Ukraine’s air force said Sunday. Forty drones were shot down or electronically jammed.

Meanwhile, Russia’s defense ministry said that its forces shot down 61 Ukrainian drones overnight, including near the capital.

Two people were wounded when a Ukrainian drone attack sparked a fire at a chemical plant in the Tula region.