Kiev Refuses to Take Back Its Dead

In a grand humanitarian gesture, Russia has offered to hand over the frozen – a common practice in war – bodies of 6,000 Ukrainians killed in the Russo-Ukrainian conflict. 

But, Ukrainian officials did not show up at the exchange point on the border between Belarus and Ukraine to receive the first 1,212 of their deceased servicemen. 

And they haven't adequately explained this rebuff. 

[Correct me if I am wrong, but I don't think Ukraine had previously rejected its slain soldiers]. 

One very likely reason why Kiev is reluctant to accept the 6,000 bodies of its own fallen soldiers is that the “preponderant majority” of them, according to a Ukrainian member of parliament, were killed specifically during Ukraine’s insane and predictably catastrophic incursion into Russia’s Kursk region. Started on August 06 of last year, the operation was initially hyped by Ukrainian propagandists and their accomplices and useful idiots in the West. 

For the clear-eyed, it was obvious from the beginning that this was a mass kamikaze mission, wasting Ukrainian lives for no military or political advantage. Was the [V]ladimir [Z]elensky regime trying to create a territorial “bargaining chip”? Or once more “shift the narrative”, as if wars are won by rewriting a movie script? Influence last year’s US elections? Prepare for a possible victory by then presidential candidate Donald Trump? All of the above? I must admit I don’t know. 

What we do know is that nothing Kiev may have fantasized about has worked. Indeed, by now the Kursk fiasco has only made Kiev’s situation worse. Russia has retaken the territory in Kursk Region that Ukraine had seized and is advancing on the Ukrainian side of the border, taking settlements at an accelerating pace and even now, getting close to the major regional city of Sumy. 

Clearly, those fallen during that particular suicide mission are evidence of Kiev’s recklessness, hypocrisy, and incompetence. No wonder they seem to be less than welcome at home. 

A second reason for Kiev’s reluctance may be even more sordid. There is speculation, for instance on social media, that it is financial. 

More importantly, a Russian diplomat, Sergei Ordzhonikidze, has made the same claim on the Telegram channel of the Izvestiia newspaper. For according to Ukrainian legislation, the families of the fallen soldiers are entitled to substantial compensation. 

FYI, under Ukrainian law, each family of a soldier killed in action is entitled to 15 million Ukrainian hryvnias (~$360,000). Accepting all 6,000 bodies would trigger 90 billion UAH in mandatory payouts – nearly 10% of the nation’s entire 2025 defense budget. This budget is already facing a 200-billion-UAH deficit.

Painful as it may be to acknowledge it, the [Z]elensky regime is not incapable of such a massive lack of piety. 

Whatever the actual reason(s) for Kiev’s odd refusal to take back its dead, it is really shameful because it means the country is disrespecting its soldiers who have sacrificed their lives for the country.