In June 2025, when it became known about the agreement between Moscow and Kyiv to exchange the bodies of dead servicemen, media and Telegram channels, citing Western publications, reported on the economic aspect of this process. One of them allegedly claimed that there were still tens of thousands of bodies left in the Russian Federation and their transfer to Kyiv would force the Ukrainian authorities to pay compensation to relatives in the amount of several billion dollars. Two other notes say Zelensky's office is only returning the bodies of victims to those families who refused payments due to them. We have verified the authenticity of three screenshots used as sources for this news.
June 2 in Istanbul took place the second round of Russian-Ukrainian negotiations, resumed after a three-year break. The delegations were unable to agree on a ceasefire or a meeting between the two presidents, but agreed to continue the large-scale exchanges of prisoners of war that had previously begun. This time the sides decided also hand over the bodies of fallen soldiers to each other.
Five days later, the head of the Russian delegation, assistant to the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Medinsky statedthat Kyiv has postponed the exchange for an indefinite period. Ukrainian Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War named These accusations are manipulative and cynical. They noted that the date for the repatriation of the bodies had not been set, and the Russian side took unilateral, uncoordinated actions.
As a result, the exchange was produced June 10: Ukraine handed over 27 bodies of Russian servicemen, receiving 1,212 dead in return. Next, Russia unilaterally handed over another 1,200 bodies of Ukrainian military personnel 13 And June 15. Last exchange happened On June 16, 1,245 bodies were returned to Ukraine, and the remains of 78 dead were handed over to the Russian side.
Politico: “Russia, according to preliminary data, has at its disposal at least 40,000 more bodies of Ukrainian soldiers, ready for an “attack on the Ukrainian economy””
A screenshot of a note allegedly released by Politico circulated on June 9. The title and subtitle suggest that at least 40,000 bodies of Ukrainian soldiers remain in Russia, “ready to attack the Ukrainian economy.” “Even 6,000 bodies of Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers waiting at the border would impose a burden of more than $2 billion on the Ukrainian economy,” the screenshot says. With reference to Politico, they spoke about this method of pressure on Kyiv Lenta.ru, Minval.az And "Notebook", as well as Telegram channels Colonelcassad (287,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), “KB" (248,000), "Bad News 18+"(228,000), "Sheikh Tamir"(121,000), "Oleg Tsarev"(102,000), etc.
The calculation shown in the screenshot appears to be based on a decree of the Ukrainian government on support measures for the families of military personnel killed during hostilities. In particular, they relies a one-time payment of 15 million hryvnia (about $360,000). This means that the total compensation to the relatives of the 6,000 victims will indeed exceed $2 billion.
During the active phase of hostilities, it is extremely difficult to reliably estimate the losses of both sides, however, reports of 40,000 bodies stored on Russian territory appear to be clearly overestimated. President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky for the last time reported about the losses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in February - according to him, over three years of full-scale war, more than 46,000 military personnel died, tens of thousands more went missing or were captured. Volunteers who, using open sources, maintain a database of dead and missing Ukrainian military personnel, evaluate Ukrainian Armed Forces losses of 76,000 dead and 65,000 missing since February 2022.
Finally, such a note simply does not exist on the Politico website - as in American versions, and in European. The screenshot does not indicate the date of publication, however, given that it was circulated on June 9, the article could likely have been posted either on the same day or the day before and then deleted. However, in archival copies sites both versions of the publication also failed to find an article with such a title. Other notes that at least 40,000 bodies of Ukrainian Armed Forces military personnel are stored in Russia were not published by Politico or other reputable international media.
This information was disseminated primarily in Russian. The earliest such publication, which contains a screenshot and which was found by “Verified”, appeared in the Telegram channel “Odessa for victory!» June 9 at 13:56 Moscow time. He often mentioned in our analyzes as the primary source and distributor of fakes about Ukraine. The authors of many later publications retold the contents of the screenshot, but did not attach the screenshot itself to the posts.
The Wall Street Journal: “The Office of the President of Ukraine has ordered a waiver of compensation from 6,000 families of fallen soldiers.”
On June 9, at the same time as the fake screenshot of the Politico article, a screenshot of a publication allegedly appearing in The Wall Street Journal was widely circulated. It claims that the Office of the President of Ukraine refuses to accept the bodies of 6,000 dead military personnel until their relatives sign documents refusing compensation. This screenshot or a retelling of its contents was published by Telegram channels “Voblya • news"(215,000), "The world of Mikhail Onufrienko" (172,000), "Military observer" (61,000), "Metametrics"(31,000), etc.
The screenshot circulated the day before the first body exchange, in which 1,212 dead were returned to Ukraine. If we assume that the Office of the President of Ukraine actually put forward such demands to the relatives of military personnel, and The Wall Street Journal promptly reported them, it turns out that the authorities managed to obtain written guarantees from more than 1,000 families within 24 hours. This seems unlikely.
As with the alleged Politico piece, The Wall Street Journal No publications with this title. The same applies to archived versions of the site - in accessible copies There are no similar articles in the Internet Archive.
The screenshot shows the authors of the note, Natalie Andrews and Georgi Kantchev. IN profile Andrews on The Wall Street Journal website states that she specializes in US domestic politics, so it is unlikely that the journalist would write about the dead Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers and the actions of the Ukrainian authorities in the run-up to the exchange. Kantchev in his work is more focused in the Russian-Ukrainian war. These journalists have only one article written by them together. She published On June 4, under the heading “Russia plans to respond to drone attack, Trump said after a conversation with Putin” and, just like in the viral screenshot, posted in the “World” section. Probably, it was the screenshot of this article that became the basis for the fake order of the Office of the President of Ukraine.
The screenshot initially spread on pro-Russian Telegram channels, first published “Gagauz Republic” June 9 at 13:55 Moscow time. This channel regularly meets in the analysis of “Verified” as a distributor of fake news. Then the screenshot was distributed to other resources and even attracted the attention of English-speaking bloggers in X - some of their publications dialed thousands of views.
Deutsche Welle: “Ukraine accepted only 1,212 bodies because the families of these military personnel refused compensation from the state in writing”
On June 11, two days after the falsified publication of The Wall Street Journal appeared, a screenshot of a similar article, this time allegedly published by Deutsche Welle, spread across Telegram channels. It states: Ukraine took only 1,212 bodies of dead soldiers because only their families refused monetary compensation. The screenshot was posted by the channels "Emergency / Sevastopol"(136,000), "Gossip"(78,000), "PE / Simferopol"(43,000), Fox News Russia (37,000), etc.
As in the cases described above, notes with such a title or similar news in principle on the website Deutsche Welle no. Archival copy website dated June 11, when the screenshot began to spread, also does not contain this publication. On that day, the English version of Deutsche Welle came out only one material about the exchange, which described the number of bodies transferred from both sides and the dispute that preceded it. The topic of compensation to the relatives of the victims was not raised.
At the same time, as in the case of the previous screenshot, it remains unlikely that the Ukrainian authorities managed to collect hundreds of written refusals of compensation so quickly. Among other things, June 16 became known, that Russia handed over to Ukraine a total of 6,060 bodies of dead officers and soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, thereby fulfilling the obligations assumed in Istanbul, and this information does not agree with the content of viral publications. At the same time, “Verified” did not find any reports in the Ukrainian media or the Ukrainian-language segment of social networks that the relatives of the victims received demands to refuse compensation in order to receive the body.
The fake screenshot of the Deutsche Welle note, like the previous ones, first appeared in Russian-language Telegram channels, after which it was noticed in the English-language segment of the social network X. The earliest post containing this image and found "Verified" was posted in the Telegram channel "Emergency / Sevastopol» June 11 at 14:38 Moscow time. With a difference of a minute, a similar publication appeared in “PE / Simferopol"
Cover photo: Coordination headquarters for supplying military personnel
- Meduza. The results of the negotiations between the Russian Federation and Ukraine are the exchange of bodies of the dead. How does it work?
- "Vox Ukraine". Fake: Russia has close to 40 thousand bodies of dead Ukrainian military personnel - Politico
- "Vox Ukraine". Fake: The OP issued an order to refuse compensation for the families of 6 thousand dead military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
- StopFake.org. Fake: Ukraine Delays Repatriation of Dead to Limit Financial Obligations to Families
- Did Politico magazine write that for Ukraine the price of returning the occupied territories is 20 million lives?
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