MOSCOW, June 18. /TASS/. Ukrainian Interior Minister Igor Klimenko’s statement that identifying soldiers’ remains received from Russia will take 13-14 months is an attempt to discredit Moscow’s substantial efforts in this process, Rodion Miroshnik, Ambassador-at-Large of the Russian Foreign Ministry charged with overseeing the Kiev regime’s crimes, told TASS.
"These statements are self-revealing and demonstrate that Klimenko is making baseless allegations to tarnish Russia’s highly humane actions. Russia has already transferred over 6,000 remains of Ukrainian soldiers who died on Russian territory. His remarks only highlight the immense work Russia has done to collect, identify, prepare, and hand over the bodies of Ukrainian servicemen," Miroshnik emphasized.
On June 16, Russia’s chief negotiator at the talks with the Ukrainian side, Vladimir Medinsky, said that Russia had fulfilled its commitments under the Istanbul agreements and had handed over to the Ukrainian side 6,060 bodies of Ukrainian servicemen. That said, on June 7, Ukraine suddenly postponed the acceptance of the bodies and the prisoner swap in violation of the aforementioned agreements. The repatriation process eventually began on June 11. The Russian Defense Ministry said that Moscow is ready to hand over an additional 2,239 Ukrainian soldiers’ bodies to Kiev.