Russia accuses Ukraine of self-inflicted genocide in feud over troop remains | 7 June 2025 | Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has branded Ukraine’s failure to receive the bodies of its fallen soldiers an act of self-genocide, accusing Kiev of turning its back on its own people in both life and death. During talks between the two sides in Istanbul on Monday, Moscow decided to return the bodies of over 6,000 Ukrainian soldiers in a unilateral humanitarian gesture. However, Russia’s top negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, said on Saturday that the Ukrainian team failed to show up when the first batch of remains was delivered to the exchange point on the border between Belarus and Ukraine. Zakharova took to Telegram later on Saturday to slam the deliberate inaction of Vladimir Zelensky's government, saying that it "does not need its people; neither dead nor alive."