In June 2025, when it became known about the agreement of Moscow and Kyiv to exchange the bodies of the dead military personnel, the media and Telegram channels with reference to Western publications reported the economic aspect of this process. One of them allegedly claimed that tens of thousands of bodies remain 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. The other two notes say that Zelensky’s office returns the bodies of those killed only to those families who abandoned their payments. We checked the authenticity of three screenshots used as sources of these news.
June 2 in Istanbul took place The second round of Russian-Ukrainian negotiations renewed after a three-year break. The delegations could not agree on either the ceasefire or the meeting of the two presidents, but agreed to continue the previously begun large -scale exchanges of prisoners of war. This time decided Also convey to each other the bodies of the dead military.
Five days later, the head of the Russian delegation, assistant to the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Medinsky declaredthat Kyiv postponed an exchange for an indefinite period. Ukrainian coordination headquarters on the treatment of prisoners of war He called it These accusations are manipulative and cynical. They noted that the repatriation date of bodies was not scheduled, and the Russian side took unilateral inconsistent actions.
As a result, the exchange was produced June 10: Ukraine transferred 27 bodies of Russian troops, in response to receive 1212 dead. Further, Russia unilaterally transferred another 1,200 bodies of Ukrainian military 13 And June 15. The last exchange happened On June 16, 1245 bodies were returned to Ukraine, the remains of 78 dead were transferred in total.
Politico: “Russia, according to preliminary data, has at its disposal at least 40,000 bodies of Ukrainian soldiers who are ready to“ attack the Ukrainian economy ””
The screenshot of the notes allegedly released Politico spread on June 9. From the headline and subtitle it follows that in Russia there are at least 40,000 bodies of the Ukrainian military, "ready to attack the Ukrainian economy." “Even 6,000 bodies of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, waiting on the border, will impose a burden of more than $ 2 billion on the Ukrainian economy,” the screenshot says. With reference to Politico about this method of pressure on Kyiv, they talked 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) and others.
The calculation given in the screenshot, apparently, is based on the decree of the Ukrainian government on support measures for the families of military personnel who died during the fighting. In particular, them Really One -time payment of 15 million hryvnias (about $ 360,000). This means that the total compensation for relatives of 6,000 dead will indeed exceed $ 2 billion.
During the active phase of military operations, it is extremely difficult to reliably assess the losses of both sides, but the reports of 40,000 bodies stored in Russia are seemed clearly overstated. President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky last time Reported About 46,000 troops died about the losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in February - for three years of a full -scale war, tens of thousands were missing or were captured. Volunteers who, by open sources, lead the base of the dead and missing Ukrainian military, Assess Losses of the Armed Forces of the Armed Forces of 76,000 dead and 65,000 missing since February 2022.
Finally, such a note is simply not on the Politico website - like in American versions, and in European. The screenshot does not indicate the date of publication, however, given that it spread on June 9, the article was probably placed either on the same day or the day before, and then delete it. However, c archival copies sites both The version of the publication also failed to find an article with such a heading. Other notes that at least 40,000 bodies of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are stored in Russia did not release either Politico or other authoritative international media.
This information has spread mainly in Russian. The earliest such publication, which contains a screenshot and which was found “verified”, appeared in the Telegram channel “Odessa Za Victory!»June 9 at 13:56 Moscow time. He is often Mentioned In our analysis as the source and distributor of fakes about Ukraine. The authors of many later publications retold the screenshot content, but did not attach a picture of the screen to the posts.
The Wall Street Journal: “The Office of the President of Ukraine ordered a refusal of compensation from 6,000 families of the dead military”
On June 9, simultaneously with the fake screenshot of Politico notes, the screenshot of the publication, which allegedly appeared in The Wall Street Journal, was widely dispersed. It states that the office of the President of Ukraine refuses to receive the bodies of 6,000 dead military, until their relatives sign documents on the refusal of compensation. This screenshot or retelling of its content was published by Telegram channels "Voblya • News"(215 000),"The world of Mikhail Onufrienko"(172 000),"Military observer"(61 000),"Metametric"(31,000) and others.
The screenshot spread the day before the first exchange of bodies, within the framework of which 1212 dead were returned to Ukraine. If we assume that the office of the President of Ukraine actually put forward similar requirements for relatives of military personnel, and The Wall Street Journal promptly reported them, it turns out that the authorities managed to get written guarantees from more than 1000 families per day. This seems unlikely.
As in the case of the alleged note by Politico, on The Wall Street Journal on The Wall Street No publications with such a heading. The same applies to the archival versions of the site - in accessible copies There are no such articles in Internet archive.
The screenshot indicates the authors of the notes of Natalie Andrews and Georgy Kantchev. IN profile Andrews on The Wall Street Journal states that it specializes in the domestic policy of the United States, therefore it is unlikely that the journalist would write about the dead soldiers of the Armed Forces and actions of the Ukrainian authorities on the eve of the exchange. Kantchev in his work more concentrated In the Russian-Ukrainian war. These journalists have only one note, written by them together. She Published On June 4, under the heading “Russia plans to answer the attack of drones, Trump said after a conversation with Putin” and just like on a viral screenshot, placed in the “Mir” section. Probably, it was the screenshot of this article that became the basis for fake the disposal of the office of the President of Ukraine.
The screen of the screen initially spread in the pro-Russian Telegram channels, the first Published "Gagauz Republic" June 9 at 13:55 Moscow time. This channel is regularly Found In the analysis of “tested” as a fake news distributor. Further, the screenshot was dispersed by other resources and even attracted the attention of English -speaking bloggers to X - some of their publications Sicked Thousands of views.
Deutsche Welle: “Ukraine accepted only 1212 bodies, because the families of these military in writing refused compensation from the state”
On June 11, two days after the appearance of The Wall Street Journal, a screenshot of a similar article, this time allegedly released Deutsche Welle, spread through the Telegram channels. It states: Ukraine took only 1212 bodies of the dead military, because only their families abandoned monetary compensation. The screenshot placed the channels "Emergency / Sevastopol"(136 000),"Gossip"(78 000),"PE / Simferopol"(43,000), Fox News Russia (37,000) and others.
As in the cases described above, notes with such a heading or similar news in principle On the site Deutsche Welle is not. Archive copy The site of June 11, when the screenshot began to spread, also does not contain this publication. On that day, the English -speaking version of Deutsche Welle I went out Only one material about the exchange, which described the number of transmitted bodies from both sides and preceded this dispute. The topic of compensation for the relatives of the dead 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 It is knownWhat Russia transferred to Ukraine a total of 6060 bodies of dead officers and APU soldiers, thereby fulfilling the obligations taken in Istanbul, and this information is not consistent with the content of viral publications. At the same time, “verified” did not find reports in the Ukrainian media and the Ukrainian -language segment of social networks that the relatives of the dead received demands to abandon compensation for the sake of receiving the body.
The fake screenshot of Deutsche Welle, like the previous ones, first appeared in Russian-speaking Telegram channels, after which they paid attention to the English-language segment of the social network X. The earliest post containing this image and the discovered “verified” was placed 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".
Photo on the cover: Coordinatial headquarters Zwan Podvodennya Z VIISOOVOLOVENIA
- Meduza. The results of negotiations of the Russian Federation and Ukraine are the exchange of bodies of the dead. How is it arranged?
- "Voks Ukrainian." Fake: murals May 40 Tysyach Tilkhkhlikh Ukrainian Vіsikovikh - Politico
- "Voks Ukrainian." Fake: OP issued an order to refuse compensation for families 6 thousand dead military personnel of the Armed Forces
- Stopfake.org. FAKE: UKRAINE DELAYS Repatriation of Dead to Limit Financial Obligations to Families
- Did Politico write that for Ukraine the price of the return of the occupied territories is 20 million lives?
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