Ukraine ‘received at least 20 bodies of Russian soldiers in recent exchanges'
Ukraine's president said that Russia repatriated at least 20 of its own dead soldiers in recent exchanges with Ukraine, describing it as a result of Moscow's disorganisation in carrying out large swaps of wounded POWs and remains of troops.
Volodymyr Zelensky said that an Israeli citizen was among the dead Ukraine had received in recent exchanges.
Advertisement
'They threw the corpses of their citizens at us. This is their attitude toward war, toward their soldiers. And this is already documented. Sometimes these bodies even have Russian passports,' he said.
He said the Russian side insisted the dead were all Ukrainians.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press via AP)
Journalists were shown a Russian passport and ID belonging to one of the 20 dead Russians. According to the document, the man came from the Moscow region.
The exchanges of the dead and wounded soldiers are the only tangible result of direct peace talks in Istanbul.
Advertisement
In June, Ukraine and Russia agreed to exchange the bodies of fallen soldiers in a 6,000-for-6,000 format during the second round of negotiations.
Ukraine was concerned that the number was too high and that the sides did not have enough time for forensic examinations and checking the identities of the dead.
Mr Zelensky said he suspected Russia's plan was to play along with peace talks to appease the US and stave off more sanctions but without ending the war that Russian president Vladimir Putin believes he is winning.
He said that because of this, Ukraine would be 'in a really difficult situation' of deciding whether to continue the talks in Istanbul.
Advertisement
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sky News
39 minutes ago
- Sky News
Five reasons why we may not see anything more than rhetoric from Russia after US attacks Iran
On the surface, at least, Moscow is fuming. Russia's foreign ministry said it "strongly condemns" the US airstrikes on Iran, which it labelled a "dangerous escalation". Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia's powerful security council, accused Donald Trump of starting "a new war", and others have called for Moscow to step in. "It's time for us to help Tehran," said Konstantin Malofeyev, a sanctioned Russian businessman who is close to Vladimir Putin. But this was to be expected. Iran has been a vital ally in recent years, selling weapons to Russia for its war in Ukraine, and the two nations signed a strategic partnership deal in January. So a robust verbal riposte was predictable. But the response so far feels more show than substance and if things don't escalate further, I doubt we'll see anything more than rhetoric from Russia. 0:54 There are several reasons why. Firstly, the strategic partnership deal doesn't contain a mutual defence clause. The pact does seek to deepen their defence cooperation, but neither country is obliged to provide military support to the other in the event of an attack. Secondly, if Moscow did want to join the conflict or even supply weapons to Tehran, it would be hard pushed to. Resources are focused on the war in Ukraine. Thirdly, Russia doesn't want to damage its warming relations with the US. Any kind of aid to Iran would likely jeopardise the tentative rapprochement. Fourthly, the Israel-Iran conflict is a helpful distraction from the Kremlin's war against Ukraine. With all eyes on the Middle East, any pressure there was from Washington on Moscow to reach a peace deal seems to have evaporated. Lastly, it's not Vladimir Putin who's spoken out, but the usual attack dogs. 2:02 Dmitry Medvedev, for example, is a senior figure but his fiery rhetoric is generally considered to be part of a Kremlin comms strategy rather than actual policy expression. Having said all that, though, Russia won't want the situation to escalate any further. Its regional influence took a battering when the Assad regime in Syria was toppled in December, and that influence would practically disappear if another Moscow-friendly regime in Iran were to fall. So for now, the Kremlin is frantically trying to find a diplomatic solution. Last week, Vladimir Putin held conversations with the leaders of Israel, Iran, America, China and the UAE, and those efforts continue on Monday when he'll meet Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi in Moscow. If the reports are true - that the US forewarned Tehran of the bombings and signalled they'd be a one-off - there's a good chance Moscow had prior knowledge too. Either way, Vladimir Putin's aim here is to play peacemaker, and to turn the situation to his advantage. If he can persuade Mr Araghchi to limit Iran's response to a symbolic one, and to then return to the negotiating table with America, he will have Donald Trump in his debt. The obvious place he'd want that repaid is Ukraine, in the form of withdrawing US support.
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Trump prepares to jet to NATO as poll reveals Americans think White House backs Russia over Ukraine
President Donald Trump will head to a NATO summit this week - as a poll found that more Americans think his administration is siding with Russia over Ukraine. A Ronald Reagan Institute survey of U.S. adults, conducted from late May to early June, showed 37 percent of respondents believe the Trump administration is favoring Russia when it comes to negotiating an end to the conflict. Just 14 percent said the Trump White House was favoring Ukraine. Another 36 percent said the Trump administration was taking a neutral approach - despite Ukraine being a longtime U.S. ally and Russian President Vladimir Putin launching the invasion in February 2022. The numbers, which were released Sunday, come after Newsweek reported that the U.S. was pressuring European allies to limit references to Ukraine in the final communique of the NATO summit, which will take place Tuesday and Wednesday in The Hague, Netherlands. A White House spokesperson wouldn't confirm Newsweek's reporting to the Daily Mail. If the U.S. is successful at containing a focus on Ukraine, it would be a departure from previous NATO summits during the tenure of former President Joe Biden that showed strong support for the besieged country, which is not a NATO member. Ahead of the summit, a senior U.S. official's statement didn't mention the Ukraine war - instead focusing on one of Trump's longtime goals for NATO. 'The president intends to secure a historic 5 percent defense spending pledge from NATO allies, which will strengthen the Alliance's combined military capabilities and ensure greater stability in Europe and the world,' the senior official said. 'This effort builds on the hundreds of billions of dollars in spending increases already achieved across the Alliance since 2017 thanks to President Trump's diplomacy in his first term,' the source added. The Reagan Institute Survey found that a majority of Americans still support defending a NATO ally even if they weren't spending enough on defense. Fifty-three percent expressed this view, while 30 percent said the U.S. should not come to that country's defense. A majority of Americans also opposed the U.S. pulling out of NATO - 55 percent to 33 percent - with respondents feeling more strongly about the U.S. staying in. Breaking down the numbers, 38 percent strongly opposed the U.S. pulling out of NATO - which was formed to deter the former Soviet Union - while just 15 percent supported the U.S. withdrawing from the compact. On several occasions, Trump has mulled pulling the U.S. out of NATO or threatened not to come to a country's aid if they don't pay up. During the 2024 campaign, Trump sparked controversy by recounting a conversation with a world leader in which he suggested he might not defend a NATO country that was 'delinquent' in its payments. 'I would encourage them [Russia] to do whatever the hell they want. You got to pay. You got to pay your bills,' the then-candidate said. Seventy-one percent of U.S. adults said they supported the U.S. defending a NATO country if there was an attack. Just 17 percent weren't in favor of helping a NATO ally. A majority of Americans, 59 percent, also said they were in favor of increasing the U.S.'s military presence in Europe to counter Russian aggression. Trump said last Saturday that Putin called him on his birthday - but their discussion mainly focused on the war between Israel and Iran, rather than Russia's own conflict. 'Much less time was spent talking about Russia/Ukraine, but that will be for next week,' the president said in a Truth Social post. That was ahead of Trump's trip to Canada for the G7 - which he cut a day short - saying he needed to be back in Washington to tend to the war in the Middle East. He was supposed to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the day of the G7 that he missed. 'Finally, President Trump intends to hold bilateral meetings with several world leaders, which will focus on issues of shared concern and reaffirm the United States strong ties with our allies and partners,' the senior official said Friday, not articulating who the president was sitting down with yet. It was unclear as of Friday if Zelensky still planned to travel to the Hague for the NATO Summit after Trump skipped their G7 meeting.
Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Russia taunts Trump with nuclear threat: Ex-president Dmitry Medvedev says 'number of countries' are now queuing up to hand the devastating weapons to Iran
A 'number of countries' are ready to supply Iran with nuclear warheads after its nuclear facilities were attacked by the US, Russian ex-president Dmitriy Medvedev has claimed. In a post on X/ Twitter early on Sunday, Medvedev suggested that the US strikes on three sites in Isfahan, Natanz, and Fordow had backfired and led to the opposite result from what US President Donald Trump had set out to achieve. In a taunting post, Medvedev claimed: 'Enrichment of nuclear material — and, now we can say it outright, the future production of nuclear weapons — will continue.' Medvedev, who has served as President of Russia from 2008 to 2012, further stated that 'Iran's political regime has survived — and in all likelihood, has come out even stronger'. He continued to claim that Iranians are 'rallying around the country's spiritual leadership, including those who were previously indifferent or opposed to it'. His anti-US and pro-Iran social media rant was posted in English and broken down into ten points - gathering more than three million views. Medvedev, who has served as Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia since 2020, has been regarded by some as a potential potential successor to Putin. It is not the first time the former Russian President has gone on a social media rant, as over the years he has earned himself a reputation for going on increasingly venomous tirades following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The close Putin ally initially presented himself as a liberal reformer during his one-off stint as president from 2008-2012. Yet when Russian troops marched over the Ukrainian border three years ago, Medvedev rolled back his liberal stance and quickly became one of the most hawkish and aggressive mouthpieces of the Kremlin. Commentators in Russia and beyond have claimed the former president's overt rage and support of the war could be a tactic to ensure his continued prosperity and safety as a member of Putin's inner circle, or perhaps to curry favour with hardliners as Putin grows older. An eyebrow-raising investigation conducted by independent Russian outlet The Insider revealed last year that many of his outlandish statements came just after he received a shipment of wine from Italian vineyards. Medvedev intervention on Iran's behalf could be because Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine has only been made possible by enduring support from Tehran. The two anti-Western countries signed a sweeping strategic partnership in January to formalise their military and political alignment. And as tensions escalated last week, Moscow has been manoeuvring to present itself as a regional power broker - as Vladimir Putin personally telephoned the White House on Saturday to offer himself as a mediator. While Moscow has bought weapons from Iran for its war in Ukraine and signed a 20-year strategic partnership deal with Tehran earlier this year, their relationship since the 16th century, when Muscovy officially established relations with the Persian Empire, has at times been troubled. Medvedev's anti-US and pro-Iran social media rant was posted in English and broken down into ten points - gathering more than three million views Elsewhere inside Russia, there were calls to come to the aid of its partner and to supply Iran with the same support which Washington had given to Ukraine - including air defence systems, missiles and satellite intelligence. 'It's time for us to help Tehran,' said Russian businessman Konstantin Malofeyev. 'And at the same time, to offer the United States and Iran diplomatic assistance in peace negotiations by appointing a special envoy for this. Two can play at this game.' Jailed Russian nationalist Igor Girkin said that unless Russia supported Iran, the Islamic Republic would be bombed into the Stone Age by the United States and Israel and then plunged into chaos. 'If Iran does not receive the necessary support from its allies, Russia and China, and very serious and significant support, then, most likely, within a month, its enemies will achieve this,' Girkin said on Telegram. Following the US strikes, Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Sunday that Russia strongly condemns the assault on its ally Iran. In a statement, its ministry said: 'The irresponsible decision to subject the territory of a sovereign state to missile and bomb attacks, whatever the arguments it may be presented with, flagrantly violates international law, the Charter of the United Nations and the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council. 'We call for an end to aggression and for increased efforts to create conditions for returning the situation to a political and diplomatic track.' Later on Sunday, it was reported that Trump was set to hold a phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin following American strikes on Iranian soil. Medvedev's intervention comes after top US officials urged Iran to surrender after strikes on the nation's nuclear sites 'severely damaged' its nuclear capabilities overnight. The Prime Minister urged all sides to return to negotiations but said he had taken 'all necessary measures' to protect British interests in the region if the conflict escalates. President Trump broke his two-week deadline on Saturday night as he launched 'Operation Midnight Hammer', sending a fleet of B-2 bombers to key nuclear sites. The US strikes included 14 bunker-buster bombs, more than two dozen Tomahawk missiles and over 125 military aircraft, which targeted three critical sites. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said at a Sunday morning press conference that the strikes were 'bold' and 'brilliant', and warned Iran that there would be dire consequences if it does not come to the negotiating table. Officials admitted that it is 'way too early' to say whether Iran still retains some nuclear capabilities, with sources saying the deep underground Fordow site was not entirely destroyed in the operation. World leaders condemned Trump's decision to wade into the conflict, with Chinese President Xi Jinping saying Trump 'violated' international peace. Iran's foreign minister branded Trump a 'lawless bully' who 'betrayed' diplomacy after the US blew up three nuclear bases - as he warned the world has been thrown into an 'unprecedented level of danger'. Early Sunday morning, Iran retaliated by targeting Israel in a devastating set of attacks - with emergency services reporting at least 16 people injured. Meanwhile Sir Keir Starmer has urged all sides to return to negotiations but said he had taken 'all necessary measures' to protect British interests in the region if the conflict escalates. He spoke out ahead of a Cobra meeting on Sunday afternoon, as Tehran vowed to retaliate for the strike on three facilities in the heart of the country.
