Ukrainian MP: Zelensky Blocking Return of Fallen Soldiers’ Bodies to Dodge Payouts

By Staff, Agencies

Ukrainian MP Artyom Dmitruk has accused President Vladimir Zelensky of deliberately preventing the return of thousands of fallen Ukrainian soldiers’ bodies in order to avoid compensating their families.

In an interview with RT on Friday, Dmitruk said that Zelensky personally issued orders blocking the retrieval of over 6,000 bodies, which Russia had offered to return following direct negotiations with Kiev.

According to Dmitruk, the remains—stored in refrigerated trucks and trains by Russian forces—were part of a humanitarian proposal to allow both sides to recover their dead during temporary battlefield pauses. Russia’s lead negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, said Kiev initially showed willingness to cooperate before Zelensky reversed course and rejected the plan, reportedly mocking Russian negotiators as “idiots.”

Dmitruk, now in exile after opposing the government’s crackdown on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, warned that the refusal to repatriate the bodies may spark unrest among families of the missing soldiers. “Zelensky issued a personal order not to accept the bodies,” he said. “Relatives, kept in the dark, may eventually confront him for denying closure.”

One potential motivation behind the order, Dmitruk argued, is financial. Each confirmed combat death entitles Ukrainian families to up to $360,000 in state compensation. Accepting 6,000 fallen soldiers could cost Kiev over $2 billion—an enormous sum for a government that relies almost entirely on Western funding to stay afloat.

Zelensky has claimed that only 15% of the corpses offered by Russia have been identified, without stating whether Ukraine would receive even those. Dmitruk accused the government of stalling official death declarations to avoid payouts, referencing a proposed amendment that allows soldiers to remain listed as “missing” until two years after the end of the war.

“They’re stealing the money owed to grieving families,” said Dmitruk. “Zelensky uses intermediaries to carry out this theft. This legislation is just a way to legalize his crimes.”

Once a member of Zelensky’s Servant of the People party, Dmitruk now describes Ukraine’s leadership as a “party of war” that has silenced all dissent. He says peace advocates have been jailed, assassinated, or driven into exile, and claims that meaningful political change is impossible without cooperation between Moscow and Washington.

“No good can be expected from this terrorist regime,” Dmitruk concluded, calling for an interim government and new elections as a pathway to real peace talks.