Russia has offered to return the bodies of Ukraine's fallen servicemen, but Ukraine refuses to take them back, thwarting Moscow's peace effort, pro-Kremlin propaganda claims.
NEWS: Russia's proposal to return the bodies of fallen Ukrainian servicemen is diplomatically brilliant, says former US intelligence officer Scott Ritter in an interview with the YouTube channel Dialogue Works. "The Russians have done everything flawlessly. It's brilliant, diplomatically brilliant," the expert said.
Ritter emphasized that with this proposal, Moscow has taken by surprise both the leaders in Kyiv and those in the US Congress who advocate tighter sanctions against Russia. "The Russians have put everything on the table. Ukrainians don't know what to do - just like the West," he added.
Moreover, Ritter said, former US President Donald Trump will no longer be able to claim that the Russian Federation is doing nothing to resolve the conflict.
NARRATIVES: 1. Russia has offered to return the bodies of Ukrainian servicemen killed in combat, but Ukraine refuses to receive them. 2. The US has hailed Russia's diplomatic step in the context of the war as brilliant. 3. Russia once again demonstrates that it is looking for real peace solutions, unlike Kyiv and the West.
PURPOSE: To victimize Russia and portray it as a peaceful actor in contrast to empathy-lacking Kyiv; to discredit the Ukrainian leadership and its Western supporters; to influence the international public opinion.
Reality: Ukraine and Russia have agreed a plan to exchange prisoners and the bodies of the killed servicemen. This is not a Russian initiative, it’s Kyiv’s request
WHY THE NARRATIVES ARE FALSE: The return of the bodies of fallen servicemen is not a unilateral Russian initiative, it’s a repeated request from Kyiv. According to the head of Ukraine's military intelligence service, Kirilo Budanov, Kyiv strictly abides by the Istanbul Agreements on humanitarian exchanges and condemns Russia's information pressure. He stressed that “there should be no unilateral decisions” and that “manipulations at the expense of human suffering are particularly cynical”, especially coming from those who provoked the conflict. Russia announced that it had brought to a town near the border with Ukraine the bodies of servicemen killed in the war without notifying the Ukrainian side, in order to criticize Kyiv in the eyes of the international community.
Andrii Yusov, deputy head of the Ukrainian Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War has dismissed Russian accusations that Ukraine is refusing to receive the bodies of fallen servicemen. The Ukrainian side is working on updating a list of 6,000 bodies of its fallen soldiers and is strictly abiding by the Istanbul agreements, including the principle of “all for all” exchange. Russia has already received all the necessary information to continue the repatriation process.
Scott Ritter's opinion, presented in the pro-Russian press as an objective American assessment, is in reality part of a disinformation campaign. Ritter is a convicted sex offender who was caught exposing himself to minors online on multiple occasions and has served a year and a half in prison. In addition, in January 2024, Ritter arrived in the Russian-occupied Kherson region, guarded by GRU agents, and spoke with collaborationist Governor Vladimir Saldo. His presence in the occupied territories, without Ukrainian consent, confirms his position as a pro-Russian propagandist, not an unbiased analyst.
The exchange of prisoners and bodies has been done in accordance with the bilateral agreements reached in Istanbul and it continues. The information manipulation consists in presenting a bilateral initiative as Russia’s “diplomatic stroke of genius”, ignoring the fact that humanitarian exchanges are the result of mutually agreed and respected cooperation. Russian propaganda uses individual cases of delay or misunderstandings in the complex coordination process to create the false narrative that Ukraine is not interested in the repatriation of its fallen soldiers.
The rhetoric about the Russian “diplomatic genius” cannot hide the reality that these exchanges are the implementation of pre-existing agreements initially requested by the Ukrainian side. The propaganda narrative ignores the complexity of the process of identifying, documenting and logistically coordinating humanitarian exchanges during the conflict. You cannot bring prisoners or dead bodies to the border without notifying the other side, and then accuse them of indifference and boast that you are doing everything for peace.
Ukraine has consistently demonstrated its commitment to the repatriation of fallen servicemen by rigorously observing agreed protocols and providing updated lists with information on its soldiers. Moscow has turned a standard humanitarian procedure into a media spectacle, which does not aim to provide a legal framework for a lasting peace in Ukraine, but rather to justify the large-scale invasion.
CONTEXT: Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinsky claimed that the Ukrainian side unexpectedly postponed the exchange, though Russia had transported the bodies of 1,212 Ukrainian fallen soldiers to the agreed location. In response, the Ukrainian authorities denied the accusations as manipulation and said no exact date had been set for the exchange, accusing Russia of acting unilaterally. Ukraine and Russia have begun a new exchange of prisoners of war, following an agreement reached in a second round of direct talks in Istanbul. Both sides agreed to release all wounded and captured servicemen under the age of 25 - more than 1,000 on each side.
This is not the first time that the Russian media has quoted the former US intelligence officer Scott Ritter as an important analytical voice in the US. Ritter is, in fact, a marginalized and shunned figure in the mainstream press because of criminal convictions for sex offenses with minors. Ritter is a longtime contributor to the Russian government media and a fierce critic of the US foreign policy. He has been paid by Russia Today for pro-Russian and anti-American articles or statements published in various media outlets of the Moscow-based trust. There is a page containing Ritter's anti-Western articles and statements in Russian. Ritter's page can be financially supported through two bank accounts to which Russian rubles can be transferred.
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