Putin Sending Dead Russian Soldiers to Ukraine To Hide Losses: Zelensky

Russia sent to Ukraine some of its dead troops in a prisoner and body exchange to hide Moscow’s true battlefield losses, according to Volodymyr Zelensky.

The Ukrainian president said that Vladimir Putin was using the return of war dead to obscure the scale of military losses from the Russian public.

“Putin is afraid to admit how many people have died,” Zelensky told the media briefing, according to the Kyiv Independent.

Newsweek has contacted the Russian defense ministry for comment.

Why It Matters

Ukraine’s General Staff said on Saturday Russian forces have sustained over 1,010,000 casualties—killed and wounded—since the start of the full-scale invasion.

While both sides keep tight-lipped about losses, Zelensky is accusing Moscow of hiding the scale of losses from the Russian public for fear of undermining any future mobilization.

What To Know

Zelensky’s comments follow a prisoner and body exchange agreement in Istanbul on June 2 which was the most extensive of the full-scale war.

Ukraine recovered 6,057 bodies of its fallen soldiers while Russia took back only 78, according to Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky. Zelensky has said the vast majority of Russian soldiers killed on the battlefield remain in Russian hands.

But at least 20 of the bodies Russia returned as Ukrainian were actually Russian soldiers, some of whom had Russian passports according to Zelensky as part of a policy by Moscow to “break the reality in which we live.”

The Ukrainian president also cited the case of an Israeli citizen who had died fighting on Russia’s side whom Moscow had passed off as a Ukrainian soldier.

Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko had said on Thursday the remains of Alexander Viktorovich Bugaev, from Russia’s 39th Separate Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade, had been returned to Ukraine disguised as a Ukrainian casualty.

Independent Russian outlet Mediazona, along with the BBC Russian Service, has verified the identities of 111,387 Russian soldiers killed but with the caveat that the official proof required meant actual number is likely much higher.

What People Are Saying

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, per Kyiv Independent: “Putin is afraid to admit how many people have died. Because if the moment comes when he needs to mobilize, his society will be afraid.”

Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko: “This shows how little human life means to Russia. Or maybe it’s just a way to avoid paying compensation to the families.”

What Happens Next

Russia is likely to continue to suffer huge losses amid marginal battlefield gains. It comes as Ukraine’s military intelligence (HUR) reported on Saturday that Moscow is recruiting migrant workers from Central Asia as “cannon fodder.”

Migrant workers from Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and other countries in the region are joining Russia’s armed forces under duress and are used in the most dangerous areas of the front line.