Rome, June 21 (LaPresse) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of returning 20 coffins of Russian soldiers to Kyiv instead of Ukrainian soldiers. "During the repatriation of bodies, 20 of those returned to us as fallen Ukrainian soldiers turned out to be Russian, and one was a foreign mercenary. This lie is documented; some of the bodies even had Russian passports," the Ukrainian leader stated on X.
"We want to bring home all our defenders, alive and fallen. But we will not accept Russians just to even the numbers. When we tell Moscow that they have handed over Russian citizens, they deny it," Zelensky continued, adding that "this is not an isolated case." "We believe they are doing it deliberately," he said, accusing Moscow of trying to conceal the losses it has suffered.