MOSCOW, June 10. /TASS/. Ukraine's refusal to accept the bodies of fallen soldiers marks a troubling shift - a clear sign of a broader civilizational conflict - and it is, frankly, contemptible. This was the perspective shared in an interview with TASS by Xavier Moreau, a former French paratrooper turned military analyst.
He began with a compelling analogy: "This reminds me of Antigone," he said, referencing the ancient Greek tragedy by Sophocles, later adapted by Jean Anouilh in the 1940s. In the play, Antigone is condemned to death for defying King Creon by burying her brother - an act of respect and honor in their civilization. She is arrested for her refusal, demonstrating her unwavering commitment to her moral duty. Moreau explained, "In our civilization, and indeed in all civilizations, we honor our dead. We bury them. But now, we have reached a point where this fundamental respect is being discarded. This contempt for the fallen is truly shocking." He characterized this attitude as "the embodiment of absolute evil."
Moreau criticized the Ukrainian leadership's stance, suggesting that the refusal to accept the bodies reveals a deeper moral crisis. He speculated that Zelensky could, in theory, negotiate a transfer: "He could say, 'Russians are willing to give us 6,000 bodies. If I agree to pay compensation - say, two billion dollars - we can give the soldiers a proper burial.' But clearly, they lack the funds, and perhaps the will, to do so. Instead, they reject the bodies altogether." He argued that if the Ukrainian people were genuinely committed to continuing the war, they would accept the bodies without demanding compensation, just as Europeans did during past conflicts. "In 1916, if such a situation arose, the French or Germans would have simply taken the bodies without hesitation. Today, the Kiev regime fears its own population too much to make such a straightforward, courageous decision," he observed.
Moreau also pointed out a troubling silence in the French media regarding these developments. "They haven't responded," he noted. "When it was revealed that, contrary to the claim of 20,000 kidnapped children, only 339 minors are listed as missing - information that was eventually handed over to Russia - they said nothing. They also haven't addressed the fact that the list of victims in Bucha remains unreleased, despite Russian requests through the UN. These are different kinds of lies - omissions and misinformation - that go unchallenged." He accused the French press of outright dishonesty, "spouting nonsense and deliberately hiding the truth," warning that such lies will persist, ultimately culminating in a grand, repeating falsehood across media channels.