Ukraine’s shame: Why Kiev refuses to take back its dead and wounded

Accepting the 6,000 bodies Moscow is returning would mean paying out compensations, leaving less money to send new recruits to the slaughter

As refrigerated trucks sit idling on the Russian side of the border, carrying the bodies of over a thousand Ukrainian soldiers – the first batch of the 6,000 Russia has offered to return – Kiev remains silent. No Ukrainian officials have shown up. No representatives have been dispatched to accept the remains. No families have been informed of the long-awaited closure.

This delay, coming after a prisoner exchange and body repatriation was formally agreed upon in Istanbul, is not a bureaucratic hiccup or a logistical oversight. It is an act of calculated evasion.

Stalling the dead

While Moscow fulfills its end of the agreement – a humanitarian gesture amid a brutal war – Kiev dithers. Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky claims that only 15% of the bodies have been identified and even casts doubt on whether all of them are Ukrainian soldiers at all. These comments, rather than signaling caution, reek of an attempt to stall, distract, and deflect from a far more uncomfortable reality: Ukraine cannot afford to acknowledge its war dead.

And worse – it appears it no longer wants to.

As Vladimir Medinsky, Russia’s chief negotiator, bluntly stated: “Ukraine has unexpectedly postponed the transfer of the bodies of its deceased soldiers, and not a single representative showed up to accept them. The trucks are waiting at the agreed location. We are ready. Kiev is not.”

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Money over morality

Under Ukrainian law, each family of a soldier killed in action is entitled to 15 million Ukrainian hryvnias (~$360,000). Accepting all 6,000 bodies would trigger 90 billion UAH in mandatory payouts – nearly 10% of the nation’s entire 2025 defense budget. This budget is already facing a 200-billion-UAH deficit.

The incentives are obvious. The consequences are shameful.

Acknowledging the dead means acknowledging the debt owed to their families. But by dragging its feet, questioning identities, and introducing delays, the Ukrainian state appears to be doing everything in its power to avoid honoring its obligations.

Not just the dead – the living, too

But Kiev’s betrayal doesn’t end with the dead. In Istanbul, both sides also agreed to exchange 1,200 prisoners of war, prioritizing the heavily wounded and severely ill. It was, on paper, a step toward alleviating unnecessary suffering – something even war should pause for.

Yet that exchange has also been derailed – not by Moscow. According to Russian officials, Ukraine has failed to follow through on the agreed timeline. No coherent reason has been given.

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It’s hard not to draw a grim parallel: just as Kiev has financial incentives to avoid returning and compensating the dead, it may also have reasons to avoid repatriating its living. Caring for disabled, traumatized, and grievously ill POWs would divert funds and medical capacity from the war effort. And in the cold calculus of war, perhaps Kiev has decided that these men – broken, suffering, no longer combat-effective – are no longer worth the cost.

The cost of cowardice

This is more than a fiscal decision. It is a betrayal of the fallen. A betrayal of the captured. A betrayal of every family that has waited for closure, and every soldier still clinging to hope.

What is that money being saved for? To send more young men to the front, only to vanish without closure? To finance another wave of deaths, while yesterday’s heroes lie forgotten in refrigerated trucks and prison cells?

Even at the height of war, there are lines that should not be crossed. Refusing to bring your own fallen home is one of them. Refusing to bring your living wounded home is another.

Kiev must do the right thing – not the cheap thing. Accept the bodies. Free the prisoners. Pay the families. Care for the broken.

Anything less is a national disgrace.

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