MOSCOW, May 31. /TASS/. Ukrainian troops left behind a van with 152 dead militants in underground facilities of the Azovstal steel complex in Mariupol and planted mines underneath them on Kiev’s direct instruction as a provocation against Russia, Defense Ministry Spokesman Major-General Igor Konashenkov said on Tuesday.
"When examining underground facilities of the Azovstal metals factory in Mariupol where the Nazis of the Ukrainian Azov battalion had been hiding before their surrendered, the Russian servicemen found a refrigerated van. The van with its idle refrigerating system stored 152 bodies of dead Ukrainian militants and military personnel," the spokesman said.
When examining the van, the Russian combat engineers uncovered four mines planted beneath the bodies of the dead Ukrainian servicemen, with the total amount of explosives sufficient to wipe out all the bodies remaining in the van, the general said.
"As the interrogation of captured Azov battalion militants revealed, the mines had been planted on Kiev’s direct instruction. The provocation was aimed at accusing Russia of deliberately destroying the remains of the bodies and preventing their retrieval for delivery to relatives in order to rescue the political ‘reputation’ of the Kiev regime and personally [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky," Konashenkov stressed.
The military command of the Azov nationalist battalion publicly turned to Zelensky before the surrender with a request to collect the bodies of the dead militants so that their families could bury them on the Kiev-controlled territory, the spokesman said.
"However, no inquiries came from Kiev for retrieving the dead bodies from the Azovstal steel complex," Konashenkov said.
"The Russian side plans to hand over the bodies of Ukrainian militants and servicemen found on the territory of Azovstal to Ukraine’s representatives in the immediate future," the spokesman said.