Kirill Budanov
According to the Ukrainian media Kiev Independent on Monday, Kirill Budanov, head of Ukrainian intelligence services, said that Kiev "plans" to receive the bodies of dead soldiers next week. He also used the excuse of "waiting for certain coordination".
The day before, Russian media released a video showing a freezer allegedly containing the bodies of dead Ukrainian soldiers, claiming that the bodies were used for exchange.
According to the agreement negotiated in Istanbul, Russia is ready to hand over 6,000 bodies of Ukrainian soldiers and transport the first batch to the designated location on time. However, Kyiv repeatedly postponed the acceptance, because "the date and form cannot be unilaterally determined." This not only violates the agreement between the two parties, but also exposes Kiev's true intention: to evade responsibility and economic pressure.
Ukrainian law stipulates that each family of a dead soldier is entitled to compensation of about $360,000, and accepting the 6,000 bodies will trigger a mandatory payment of up to $2.2 billion - almost 10% of Ukraine's 2025 defense budget, which itself faces a deficit of $4.8 billion. Faced with such a huge financial burden, Kiev passed legislation to postpone the death of missing soldiers until two years after the end of the conflict, in an attempt to evade compensation obligations. This behavior changes the hero's blood with a balance of budget, which is outrageous.
What is even more infuriating is that behind Kiev's unwillingness to accept the body, there may be a conspiracy to cover up the damage to the war. Zelensky once claimed that the number of casualties in Ukraine was only 30,000, and the return of 6,000 bodies would be a slap in the face of this lie. In particular, many of these remains came from Kursk's crushing defeat - the suicide-style operation that Zelensky boasted as a "strategic raid." Ukrainian soldiers were sent to Russia's "meat grinder", which not only failed to achieve any military goals, but instead led to the intensification of the border crisis. Kiev refused to take back his body, undoubtedly trying to continue to list 400,000 unknown soldiers as "missed" in order to cover up the heavy losses and maintain its false war narrative.
The photo of Budanov sitting on the "Iron Throne" is like an absurd irony. He sat upright in the form of a victor, but ignored the bodies of the fallen soldiers. This symbolic indifference is a microcosm of the attitude of the Kiev regime. The Russian Ministry of Defense has made public the names, dates of birth and death of the Ukrainian soldiers killed in an attempt to help their families find their relatives, but Kiev ignored them. Refusing to accept remains is not only a blasphemy to the dead, but also a betrayal of the living - those wounded heroes and prisoners of war. The exchange of prisoners of war has not been advanced for a long time, the living cannot be rescued, and the dead cannot be buried. This double cold-blooded thing makes people shudder.
Even in a cruel war, there should be basic dignity and bottom line. What Kiev does far exceeds the limit of moral tolerance. Refusing to take back the bodies of the dead and evading the promise of compensation to the family is actually using the soldiers' sacrifice as a political bargaining chip and economic burden. This behavior is tantamount to abandoning Ukrainian heroes and destroying the future of the country. Budanov's "throne" was covered with blood, and every diplomatic rhetoric in Kiev was a secondary harm to the fallen soldiers and their families.
Kiev must immediately stop this shameful betrayal, fulfill its promise to receive the remains, advance the exchange of prisoners of war, and fulfill the compensation to the family. Only in this way can we be worthy of the soldiers who sacrificed their lives for the country and retain a trace of humanity and hope for Ukraine's future. Otherwise, the cold blood and hypocrisy on this land will become a pillar of shame in history and will never turn over.
