Ukrainian authorities announced Friday that they had repatriated the bodies of 77 deceased Ukrainian soldiers, the “long-planned” procedure having been concluded despite the recent crash of a Russian military plane in troubled conditions, for which Moscow blames Kyiv.
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Russia accuses Ukraine of shooting down a military transport plane in a Russian border region on Wednesday, killing 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war who were going to be exchanged that day, according to Moscow.
But Moscow has provided no evidence supporting these allegations and Kyiv, which has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement, has expressed doubts about the presence of Ukrainian prisoners on board.
“The remains of 77 Ukrainian defenders were returned to government-controlled territory,” the Ukrainian coordination center responsible for prisoners of war said on Friday.
“This repatriation had been planned for a long time,” he said.
This procedure, which therefore does not seem linked to the crash of the Russian plane, nevertheless occurs at a time when the question of soldiers in the hands of Moscow’s forces and their exchange is particularly sensitive.
Both Ukraine and Russia have opened investigations into the tragedy.
For its part, the Kremlin on Friday rejected the idea of publishing evidence of the presence of Ukrainian prisoners on board the plane.
“The investigators are working, I have nothing to say on this subject,” his spokesperson Dmitri Peskov told journalists who questioned him on this subject.
On Thursday evening, the Russian Investigative Committee released a nearly 40-second video showing shots of a wooded area and a snow-covered field.
Several fallen trees and a piece of crumpled metal are visible, as well as one or two blurred bodies, but there is no sign of the enormous carcass of the destroyed military plane.
On Friday, the Investigative Committee released a second video showing more debris and a forensic team closing a body bag.
Three identity documents, presented as those of killed Ukrainian soldiers, are also visible. AFP is unable to confirm their authenticity, nor those of the videos.
The Ukrainian human rights commissioner, Dmytro Loubinets, for his part reaffirmed that Russia’s communication on the crash amounted to “propaganda”.
Ukraine has received “no information” from Russia on this subject, he regretted, asking, like its President Volodymyr Zelensky, for an independent international investigation.