Ukraine’s Rada is processing, after the June 2 offer of the Russian negotiators to return the bodies of 6,000 fallen Ukrainian soldiers, new legislation that would delay the declaration of a soldier’s death until two years after the hostilities cease That declaration of death is necessary for family members to collect the $362,000 due them from the government. Further, the family would then have to file and go to court, where the government could still avoid the compensation. The mere consideration of such a bill adds fuel to the firestorm that has broken out over Kiev’s manifest reluctance to claim the bodies of their soldiers.
Russia’s lead negotiator Vladimir Medinsky had described how the Ukrainian negotiators had initially expressed interest in Russia’s offer, no strings attached, to hand over the deceased. They consulted Kiev and, two hours later, the offer had been rejected. Today, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Maria Zakharova wondered aloud on her Telegram channel: “Was it Zelenskyy’s personal decision not to collect the bodies of Ukrainians, or did someone from NATO forbid it?”
Now, Ukrainian lawmaker Artyom Dmitruk names Ukraine’s acting president Volodymyr Zelenskyy as the one who personally blocked the offer. Dmitruk, a critic of Zelenskyy, had fled Ukraine a year ago after publicly opposing the government’s crackdown on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Yesterday, he said:
“I know Zelenskyy issued a personal order not to accept the bodies of the Ukrainian military men who were killed in action. And this situation can become cathartic, so to say. It could be one of the cases that could cause a lot of unrest from the relatives who know nothing about their loved ones and could confront Zelenskyy because of this.... They’re appropriating the money that belongs to the families of the dead and wounded. Zelenskyy is used to stealing it via his proxies.”
He added that the new law introduced last week “is just another way to legalize his crimes…. Just imagine—two years after the end of the war, and we don’t know when and how it will end—yet they are already establishing this framework.”
Dmitruk, who once belonged to Zelenskyy’s Servant of the People party, described Ukraine’s current leadership as a “party of war” that has suppressed any dissent. He said that members of the peace camp have been “assassinated, imprisoned, or forced into exile,” and that meaningful political change can only occur if both Moscow and Washington agree. “No good can be expected from this terrorist regime,” he said, arguing that only a change in government could open the way for real peace talks, and calling for an interim administration and fresh elections in Ukraine.”
