La Russia “ha paura di ammettere” la scala delle perdite, cercando di nascondersi scaricando i corpi dei soldati in Ucraina, dice Zelensky | Le autorità ucraine hanno confermato che almeno 20 degli organi della Russia sono tornati in quanto ucraini erano in realtà soldati russi, ha detto il presidente

From the article: Russia is using the return of war dead as a tool for manipulation to obscure the scale of its military losses from the public, President Volodymyr Zelensky said during a briefing on June 20 attended by the Kyiv Independent.

According to Zelensky, Ukrainian authorities have confirmed that at least 20 of the bodies Russia returned as Ukrainian were actually Russian soldiers.

“Sometimes these bodies even have Russian passports,” Zelensky said. He also cited the case of a deceased Israeli citizen fighting on Russia’s side, whom Moscow had passed off as a Ukrainian soldier.

“Putin is afraid to admit how many people have died. Because if the moment comes when he needs to mobilize, his society will be afraid,” he said.

Zelensky’s remarks follow the June 2 prisoner and body exchange agreement in Istanbul, the most extensive of the full-scale war. Under that deal, Ukraine recovered 6,057 bodies of its fallen soldiers. Russia, according to Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky, took back only 78.

Explaining the difference between the two numbers, Zelensky said that the bodies of the vast majority of Russian soldiers currently killed on the battlefield remain in Russian hands.

“They were advancing, and their dead remained in the territory where they were,” he said.

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