Key Points – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has made the damning accusation that Russia is covertly returning its own fallen soldiers to Ukraine, disguised as Ukrainian casualties, to mask the true scale of its battlefield losses.
-Speaking after a major prisoner and body exchange on June 2nd, Zelensky said at least 20 of the bodies returned to Ukraine were identified as Russian, some still with passports. Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko confirmed a specific case.
-The allegation, if true, highlights a cynical Kremlin strategy to control the narrative around its staggering casualties, which are believed to be approaching one million, and avoid domestic political backlash.
Zelensky’s Shock Claim: Russia Hiding Losses by Disguising Its Dead as Ukrainian
In a damning accusation against the Kremlin, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has claimed that Russia is covertly returning its own fallen soldiers to Ukraine disguised as Ukrainian casualties.
The revelation follows a major prisoner and body exchange between the two countries earlier this month.
Speaking to reporters, Zelensky said the June 2 exchange in Istanbul—hailed as the largest of the full-scale war—was exploited by Moscow as a means of masking the true scale of its battlefield losses.
Ukraine received over 6,000 of its war dead, while Russia took back only 78 bodies.
However, according to Zelensky, at least 20 of those were actually Russian soldiers, some still carrying Russian passports.
“Putin is afraid to admit how many people have died,” Zelensky said, warning that any future mobilization effort could collapse under the weight of public disillusionment if casualty numbers were fully revealed.
He accused the Kremlin of deliberately “breaking the reality in which we live.”
Dead Israeli Fought for Russia
One particularly shocking example was the case of a deceased Israeli citizen who had fought on Russia’s side.
Zelensky alleged that the Kremlin attempted to pass him off as a Ukrainian soldier, further illustrating what he described as a cynical campaign of obfuscation.
Ukraine’s Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko echoed the president’s concerns, revealing that the remains of a Russian soldier, Alexander Viktorovich Bugaev of the 39th Separate Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade, were returned under the guise of a Ukrainian corpse.
The claim arrives amid mounting reports that Russia is struggling to keep up its war effort due to large fatalities. The BBC Russian Service claims to have identified more than 111,000 dead Russian troops, and the real figure could be much higher.
Russia Deploys Foreign Laborers
Moscow’s recruitment of migrant laborers from Central Asia, reportedly under coercion, only underscores the human cost of the war.
Ukraine’s military intelligence says these workers are being sent to the most dangerous front lines, used as expendable “cannon fodder” to sustain Putin’s campaign.
In a war increasingly defined by disinformation and dehumanization, Zelensky’s allegations, if true, point to a chilling logic at the heart of the Kremlin’s war strategy—one where narrative control trumps accountability, and human dignity is an expendable cost of political survival.
As Russia’s economy tightens and its military campaigns stagnate, the war of attrition may be as much about perception as it is about territory.
About the Author:
Georgia Gilholy is a journalist based in the United Kingdom who has been published in Newsweek, The Times of Israel, and the Spectator. Gilholy writes about international politics, culture, and education.
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