CNN
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Russia mentioned Sunday that trains carrying extra our bodies of Ukrainian troopers had been because of depart towards the Ukrainian border, escalating a spat with Kyiv over a prisoner of struggle swap.
“I can inform you that in simply an hour, repatriation trains carrying the our bodies of army personnel may even start to maneuver,” Lieutenant Common Aleksandr Zorin mentioned on Sunday, in line with TASS information company.
The switch of “greater than 6,000 our bodies” was agreed earlier this week throughout peace talks in Istanbul, Zorin mentioned, blaming Ukraine for failing to “affirm receipt” of different our bodies of Ukrainian troopers which Russia claims it transferred to an alternate zone on Saturday.
Ukraine didn’t instantly touch upon the claims.
A deliberate alternate of Russian and Ukrainian prisoners of struggle did not happen on Saturday, with Moscow accusing Kyiv of suspending the swap on the final minute, one thing Ukrainian officers dismissed as “soiled video games” from the Kremlin.
Regardless of three years of combating such exchanges have been commonplace all through the battle and the swap was the one concrete end result of peace talks in Istanbul this week.
Russia mentioned Ukraine unexpectedly postponed a switch involving prisoners of struggle and the our bodies of lifeless troopers on Saturday, leaving a whole bunch of Ukrainian our bodies ready in refrigerated vehicles at an alternate level with nobody to gather them.
Ukraine rejected Russia’s account of the occasions, saying that the 2 sides had agreed to alternate significantly wounded and younger troops on Saturday however a date had not but been set for the repatriation of troopers’ our bodies.
Throughout a second spherical of direct peace talks in Istanbul on Monday, Russia and Ukraine agreed to alternate extra prisoners this weekend. Vladimir Medinsky, the top of Russia’s delegation for peace talks with Ukraine, mentioned this week that the alternate could be the most important because the begin of the three-year struggle.
“In strict accordance with the Istanbul agreements, the Russian facet started a humanitarian operation to switch greater than 6,000 our bodies of killed Ukrainian servicemen,” in addition to badly wounded troopers beneath the age of 25, Medinsky mentioned Saturday afternoon on Telegram.
He claimed that 1,212 our bodies of killed Ukrainian troopers had been on the alternate level, with the remaining “on their method.” He additionally mentioned that Russia gave Ukraine the primary checklist of 640 prisoners of struggle for alternate, listed as “wounded, significantly sick and younger individuals,” with the intention to begin the swap.
In a video posted by Russia’s Protection Ministry on Telegram, two males sporting hazmat fits are seen opening the doorways to the again of a truck parked on the facet of a highway. Contained in the truck had been dozens of sealed white baggage, which the ministry mentioned contained the our bodies of Ukrainian troopers.
Medinsky mentioned Russia’s Protection Ministry contact group was ready on the border with Ukraine, however alleged that Kyiv had “unexpectedly postponed the switch of our bodies and the alternate of prisoners of struggle for an indefinite interval” and had given “fairly bizarre causes” for doing so.
Ukraine swiftly rejected the accusations, saying Medinsky’s claims “don’t correspond to actuality.” It mentioned the alternate of prisoners of struggle and troopers’ our bodies had been separate processes.
“Sadly, as a substitute of constructive dialogue, we’re once more confronted with manipulations and makes an attempt to make use of delicate humanitarian points for informational functions,” Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Remedy of Prisoners of Warfare wrote on Telegram.
“We name on the Russian facet to cease enjoying soiled video games,” it added.
