Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky today accused Russia of deliberately handing over to Kiev the bodies of 20 Russian soldiers instead of Ukrainian ones during a recent major body swap.
Among those 20 bodies is "an Israeli mercenary who fought on their side - an Israeli citizen, with Israeli papers," Zelensky told reporters.
"Some of the bodies even had Russian passports," Zelensky said, accusing Moscow of "lying" when it claims to be handing over only the bodies of Ukrainians.
The Ukrainian president mentioned the possibility that Russia is deliberately sending the bodies of Russian soldiers to make it appear as if it had killed more Ukrainians while minimizing its own losses.
"We believe they are doing this intentionally to show how many Ukrainian bodies they are allegedly holding. They (the Russians) are afraid to admit the fact, which is a large number of (their) dead," Zelensky said.
During Ukrainian-Russian talks in Istanbul on June 2, Moscow and Kiev agreed on a large-scale exchange of bodies of fallen soldiers.
The Ukrainian Coordination Center for Prisoners of War announced on Monday that 6.057 bodies had been handed over to Ukraine. The center was tight-lipped about the authenticity of their nationality and military status, and the identification of the bodies was pending.
Zelensky said that Moscow does not check the identity of the bodies it hands over to Kiev and that "they (the Russians) cannot even check who they are sending because they have too many people (killed)."
For more than three years, Ukraine has been under Russian invasion with tens of thousands of deaths on both sides, both civilians and military personnel, and the authorities of both countries have not announced losses.
The exchange of bodies, especially soldiers, as well as prisoners of war are rare areas in which Kiev and Moscow cooperate.
Zelensky said that there are 695.000 Russian soldiers on Ukrainian territory, approximately 20 percent of which is in the hands of Russian forces.
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