June 16 (UPI) -- Ukraine alleged Monday that Russia mixed bodies of its own dead soldiers among the Ukrainian military dead that have been returned, and that more than a million Russians have been killed since conflict began.
Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War announced on Telegram that Russia repatriated 1,245 bodies Monday, as per an agreement made between Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul. The agency asserts that Ukraine has received a total of 6,057 bodies so far.
Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky posted to Telegram Monday that Russia has so far transferred the bodies of 6,060 Ukrainian military members back to Ukraine and received 78 in return. Russia's Ministry of Defense made a separate follow-up announcement that Russia is also ready to transfer the bodies of another 2,239 Ukrainian service members.
However, Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko posted to Telegram Monday that among the bodies Ukraine has received, "the bodies of the Russian military were also handed over to us, mixed with the bodies of Ukrainians."
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Klymenko alleged that Russia may have unknowingly included some of their dead along with the Ukrainian bodies returned, or "This could have been done by the Russians deliberately to increase the number of transferred bodies and load the work of our experts, supplementing all this with cynical information pressure."
Ukraine's Foreign Intelligence Service had announced Sunday that it anticipated Russia would soon start to share false information in regard to a POW exchange slated for Friday and would purport that Ukraine has refused to accept the return of dead soldiers in order to "provoke a wave of panic and indignation in Ukrainian society and shift responsibility for the crimes committed to the Ukrainian authorities."
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense also stated that as of Monday Russian losses in its war on Ukraine have surpassed one million dead since it began in February of 2022, as well as more than 40,000 drones, 22,000 armored fighting vehicles and nearly 11,000 tanks.
