Russia Mixing Its Own Dead Soldiers into Body Returns exchanges with Ukraine

Russia is secretly inserting the bodies of its own soldiers among the remains it returns to Ukraine during prisoner-of-war exchanges, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said this week. The move, he claims, is part of a broader attempt by Moscow to conceal the true scale of Russian casualties in the war.

Ukrainian officials have identified numerous cases where bodies received in recent exchanges— those of fallen Ukrainian soldiers—were in fact Russian servicemen. Some had Russian documents or insignia still on them. Others were identified through forensic examination.

“In the process of returning our fallen heroes, we are finding Russian soldiers among the bodies,” Zelensky stated. “Sometimes even foreigners who fought for Russia. They’re being passed off as ours.”

In one case, Ukraine reportedly received the body of an Israeli citizen who had been fighting on the Russian side. His remains were handed over alongside Ukrainians without any indication that he was a foreign combatant. According to Ukrainian officials, at least 20 such misidentified bodies were found in the most recent round of exchanges.

The issue arose during the implementation of a deal brokered in Istanbul, under which both countries agreed to return the bodies of 6,000 soldiers each. Ukraine has already repatriated more than 6,000 of its own dead in two phases—one in early June and another over June 16–17.

But Russia has acknowledged the return of only 78 of its soldiers’ remains. Ukrainian officials say the enormous discrepancy, combined with the presence of Russian bodies mixed into Ukrainian returns, points to a deliberate cover-up.

“They don’t want to take responsibility for their own losses,” Zelensky said. “They are literally hiding their dead inside ours.”

Ukrainian forensic teams have been conducting DNA analysis and identity verification on all returned remains.

In some cases, Russian bodies were discovered wearing Ukrainian uniforms, apparently to obscure their origin.

Officials believe the Kremlin is using this tactic to avoid public backlash at home, where the true number of Russian war dead remains a tightly guarded secret. Russia has not released official casualty figures in over a year, and media reporting on the subject is heavily censored.

Ukraine has condemned the practice as cynical and inhumane, accusing Moscow of treating its own soldiers as disposable—even in death.