The Russian-Ukrainian prisoner exchange plan, originally scheduled for Saturday, failed to be implemented as scheduled. Moscow accused Kiev of postponing the exchange at the last minute, while Ukrainian officials refuted that it was the Kremlin playing a "dirty trick."
Russia said Ukraine suddenly postponed the transfer of bodies of prisoners of war and dead soldiers, resulting in the bodies of more than 1,200 Ukrainian soldiers being stranded in refrigerated vehicles at the exchange point without receiving them.
Ukraine denied Russia's claims, saying that both sides had agreed to exchange severely wounded and young soldiers on Saturday, but the date of handing over the soldiers' bodies has not yet been determined.
In the second round of direct peace talks in Istanbul on Monday, Russia and Ukraine agreed to hold a larger prisoner of war exchange this weekend. Russian delegation head Vladimir Mekins said it would be the largest exchange since the three-year war.
"Russia has launched humanitarian operations in strict accordance with the Istanbul agreement, handing over the bodies of more than 6,000 Ukrainian soldiers killed in the battle," Medesky said on Telegram on Saturday afternoon, including soldiers under the age of 25.
He claimed that 1,212 bodies of Ukrainian soldiers had arrived at the exchange site, and the rest were "in transit". He also said that Russia has provided Ukraine with the first batch of 640 prisoners of war exchange list, marked as "injured, severely ill patients and young soldiers" to initiate the exchange procedure.
In a video released by the Russian Ministry of Defense on Telegram, two people wearing protective clothing were seen opening the door of the truck on the side of the road. There were dozens of sealed white body bags piled up in the carriage, and the Russian Ministry of Defense said the bag contained the remains of Ukrainian soldiers.
Mekinsky said that the Russian Ministry of Defense liaison team had been waiting on the Ukrainian border for a long time, but accused Kiev of "suddenly postponing the transfer of bodies and exchanges with prisoners of war indefinitely", and gave "quite bizarre reasons" for this.
Ukraine quickly refuted the allegations, saying Medinsky's statement "is inconsistent with the facts". Ukrainian side said that the exchange of prisoners of war and the transfer of soldiers' bodies are two independent processes.
"Unfortunately, we are facing manipulation again, and the other side is trying to use sensitive humanitarian issues to engage in public opinion wars rather than conducting constructive dialogue," said the Ukrainian POW Treatment Coordination Headquarters on Telegram.
The agency added: "We call on Russia to stop playing dirty tricks."
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense accused Russia of setting up "artificial obstacles" and making "false statements", which violated the previous agreement reached in Istanbul and deliberately obstructed the exchange of live prisoners of war.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said: "Ukraine once again encountered an attempt to violate the agreement afterwards."
Although the prisoner-of-war exchange was a rare point of consensus between the two sides, the abortion of the scheduled exchange plan on Saturday highlighted the lack of mutual trust between the two sides, and this distrust has been hindering the progress of peaceful negotiations.
Short long before the dispute broke out, Russia launched a new round of air strikes on Ukraine, killing three people in Kharkov.
