During the negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, which took place on February 28, 2022, the Russian Federation refused to take the bodies of its fallen soldiers.
This is reported by RBC-Ukraine with reference to the statement of Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov in an interview with journalist Dmytro Komarov.
"I was struck by the cynicism of the Russians. On the day when we were at the negotiations (in Belarus - ed.), we already counted about 3,000 Russians killed. Here we are sitting, talking, the negotiators are sitting on the other side. I tell them, fine, we agreed on the corridors, on the evacuation of the population, but what will we do with the bodies of your dead?" - said the minister.
According to Reznikov, at that time the Russian delegation refused to decide anything about this issue, arguing that they did not confirm such a number of losses.
"The head of the delegation (RF - ed.) turns to the deputy minister of defense, and he says, "We do not confirm whether we have 10, 20, or 30 casualties." The head of the delegation turns to me: "We do not confirm." I say, you you may not confirm it, but 3,000," he explained.
However, a few weeks after the meeting in Belarus, the head of the Red Cross, Peter Maurer, who had previously visited Moscow, arrived in Ukraine.
When asked by Reznikov whether the Russian leadership was informed about the real number of dead Russians, and at that time, according to Reznikov, there were already more than 10,000, Maurer said that he was not sure that all the information reached the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
Maurer says that "the deputy minister knows for sure, I saw it on his face, I think the minister knows too, but I am not sure that they bring the truth to the mountain, because they are afraid, because they do not want to be killer messengers." That is they cynically hid the truth. At that moment (Putin - ed.) may not have known about the losses," the minister said.
We will remind, on February 28 last year, the delegations of Ukraine and Russia held negotiations on the Belarusian border.
