The Russian Defense Ministry has offered a humanitarian pause after capturing Konstantinovka, Ukraine’s “most fortified” stronghold in Donbass
Published 5 Jul, 2026 14:51
| Updated 5 Jul, 2026 15:06
FILE PHOTO: A screenshot from the Russian Defense Ministry’s video shows an aerial view of Konstantinovka following its liberation by the Russian military. © Sputnik / Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
Kiev has refused to accept the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers who died in the fighting over Konstantinovka – a key Donbass stronghold liberated earlier this week – the Russian Defense Ministry has said.
Moscow has offered a humanitarian pause to ensure the remains of the dead could be handed over to relatives and buried properly, it added.
The Defense Ministry made its proposal on Saturday through the existing security service channels, it said in a statement on Telegram. The Ukrainian military was asked to halt the shelling of Konstantinova between 12:00 noon and 6:00 PM (Mocow time) on Monday to make the handover possible and inform the Russian command about their decision in advance.
“The Ukrainian side has rejected this proposal,” the Russian ministry said on Sunday.
“The Kiev regime has done absolutely nothing so that the bodies of dead Ukrainian servicemen could be buried properly by their relatives,” the statement added, calling it “yet another” demonstration of the Ukrainian authorities treating soldiers as “cannon fodder.”
Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky “does not need Ukrainians; neither dead, nor alive,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Zvezda TV, commenting on the development.
Kiev has been accused of deliberately obstructing the return of the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers in the past. Last year, the governor of Russia’s Zaporozhye Region, Evgeny Balitsky, published nearly 100 names of dead Ukrainian soldiers he said had been disowned by Kiev. The documents published by the official also contained their ID and places of death.
The soldiers were among the more than 6,000 Moscow offered to return to Kiev in a unilateral humanitarian gesture during the direct talks in Istanbul in 2025. According to Lieutenant General Alexander Zorin, a member of the Russian negotiating team, the Ukrainian officials “unexpectedly” postponed the acceptance of the bodies and failed to appear at the agreed location.
Balitsky also accused Kiev of trying to conceal the scale of the Ukrainian losses and avoid paying compensation to the fallen soldiers’ families at the time.
The latest development comes days after the Russian military reported the full liberation of Konstantinovka. The strategic Donbass city was taken after weeks of intense fighting. According to Russian Colonel General Sergey Rudskoy, the Ukrainian military lost around 13,500 troops in the battle.
