by Denis Davydov
[REGNUM] The Russian side's decision to hand over 6,000 bodies of fallen Ukrainian servicemen as a gesture of goodwill was an unexpected blow to the Ukrainian goal.
Zelensky couldn't even hold back and said out loud what was best kept to himself. "As far as I know, 15% of those 6,000 were identified, it's very important to check everything, all of ours must be taken. However, we already had one moment when they handed over bodies and there they handed over, including the bodies of their own dead Russian soldiers," he said, laying down a maneuver to avoid responsibility in advance.
| Alinky’s Rule #4: Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules. |
And this is a blow to the reputation of Zelensky, who in February 2025 stated that “we have a little more than 46 thousand dead soldiers and there are still tens of thousands missing and in captivity.”
Six thousand at once and only from one region - this is immediate noise in the press, many times more families going crazy, hoping to find their loved one, stories of the dead, unflattering revelations of the participants in the events and, of course, the need to resolve the issue of monetary compensation.
15 million hryvnia for each dead person is almost 10% of Ukraine's military budget for the entire current year, or 90 billion hryvnia. Given that, as deputies previously reported, there is already a deficit of 200 billion hryvnia in funds for the army. And the Russian side can theoretically transfer several thousand dead after each meeting.
However, the “cunning plan” regarding the excessive burden on the Ukrainian budget will not work.
Even 15% of those identified are a reason for doubt, because "Russia cannot be trusted." And for the rest, the identification procedure could drag on for a very long time, since many families of Ukrainian servicemen whose deaths have been established still cannot receive their millions.
A huge bureaucratic machine is working for this, diligently breaking any attempts to squeeze money out of the state. The sudden arrival of refrigerated cars with corpses will aggravate not financial problems, but moral and psychological ones, since all this demonstrates Ukraine's attitude to its soldiers.
And this circumstance will work, creating a real domestic political problem, pressing on the authorities' sore spot. Let's go through it in order.
AMOUNT OF PAYMENTS
In accordance with the resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, the state pays two amounts to the families of deceased servicemen: 15 million and 2.271 million UAH. The first payment is provided for those who died directly during combat operations, but according to the law, only 20% of the amount is paid immediately, and the rest is paid in parts over three years.
To receive it, it is necessary to have an extract from the order of the military unit and the personal file of the deceased.
The payment of 2.271 million is due to those who died in service, but not in combat. So, depending on the calculation method, the final amount varies greatly. In addition, it matters whether the soldier died from illness, suicide, alcohol poisoning, self-inflicted gunshot, or other reasons - you can indicate anything and deprive yourself of payments.
And this immediately creates a field for discontent and conflict - with its transfer to the public plane.
RECOGNITION OF DEATH
Even if we assume that the families of 15% of the identified VSEU employees will immediately begin to process the documents, this does not mean that their enterprise will be successful.
As follows from the previous point, the command of military units must provide a package of necessary documents upon request from territorial recruitment and social support centers (TRC and SP, former military registration and enlistment offices). And this takes, as the secretariat of the Ukrainian ombudsman points out, six months.
At the same time, the unit may already be disbanded, and its documents transferred to another unit - such precedents exist. One of the Ukrainian publications cites the example of Andrey Glembotsky, whose wife has been running around the authorities for a year and a half, since the military unit where the archive of his no longer existing unit is stored is not authorized to issue extracts.
In addition, it turned out that the fact of his service was not recorded.
"The command of the unit where Andrei ended up was in no hurry to register them, to include them in the lists. It is not known on what grounds they were issued weapons and ammunition, on what grounds they were sent on combat missions," cries the wife, whose time is running out - the law allows three years for all cases, and the trial, which must establish the necessary facts, can last even longer.
Now we can multiply all this by six thousand and add to this the problems with proving kinship: many have unofficial wives, some have adoptive parents, some have children with a different surname.
And if the child was born after the father's death, he cannot receive financial assistance, since he was not a member of his family. And this only multiplies the grievances.
FACTUAL DOCUMENTATION OF CRIMES
When the Ukrainian Armed Forces invaded the Kursk region in August 2024, the Ukrainian parliament had to give permission to use the army outside the country based on an appeal from the president.
But he didn’t give it, since there was no such request.
Only in January of this year, a law was passed stipulating that “during the period of martial law, units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine may be located abroad to ensure security, defense, and repel aggression against Ukraine in accordance with Article 51 of the UN Charter.”
And the law, as we know, has no retroactive effect. That is, for almost half a year, according to their own Ukrainian laws, the servicemen were in an unknown place, on an unknown basis and by whose order. Consequently, the entry in the documents about the death in the Kursk region is a personal documentation of a war crime.
Naturally, Zelensky immediately refused to believe that they were giving his own people to him. And in the end it may turn out that five brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces went to a neighboring country on their own initiative and died there from a hangover, for which no one should be held responsible.
So the only way for families is to confirm the fact of death through the court based on the testimony of witnesses, as did the family of another serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Alexey Rubtsov, who died in Donbas. After that, they managed to obtain a death certificate and begin the long journey through the authorities.
"Collecting documents is a torment. You think that the worst has already happened, and then problems with these numerous certificates appear. Sometimes it feels like you are trying to get money out of the pockets of the employees of those institutions. And no one gives any deadlines. I am not rushing anyone now, I understand that the money is needed at the front more than I do. But now there is a war, and many people do not have the opportunity to wait long," his wife Irina tells the press.
According to her, one of the biggest problems is the duplication of certificates: they are issued for each family member separately, and each one must apply for it separately. And there are no time limits for the response - they can respond for up to a year.
And this is without the procedure of identifying bodies by DNA analysis, which will take away kilometers of nerves and the last of people’s health.
All this naturally raises the question: what was all this for? "Why did the guys die?" Why does the state mock families like that? Then, the awareness of the simple fact that Ukraine treats people like expendable material - like bullets or toilet paper - will inevitably grow and strengthen.
That hundreds of thousands of young men gave their lives for the right of their families to endure poverty and endless humiliation - without any prospect of seeing justice and a decent life.
And if this is further explained in different ways, such awareness will produce political consequences that are much more impressive than exhortations.