KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s president mentioned that Russia repatriated at the least 20 of its personal lifeless troopers in current exchanges with Ukraine, describing it on account of Moscow’s disorganization in finishing up massive swaps of wounded POWs and stays of troops.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned that an Israeli citizen was among the many lifeless Ukraine had obtained in current exchanges. He spoke to journalists on Friday however his feedback had been embargoed till Saturday. Officers didn’t disclose the identities of the our bodies.
“They threw the corpses of their residents at us. That is their perspective towards battle, towards their troopers. And that is already documented. Typically these our bodies even have Russian passports,” he mentioned.
He mentioned the Russian aspect insisted the lifeless had been all Ukrainians.
Journalists had been proven a Russian passport and ID belonging to one of many 20 lifeless Russians. Based on the doc, the person got here from the Moscow area.
The exchanges of the dead and wounded soldiers are the only tangible result of direct peace talks in Istanbul. In June, Ukraine and Russia agreed to exchange the bodies of fallen soldiers in a 6,000-for-6,000 format throughout the second spherical of negotiations. Ukraine was involved that the quantity was too excessive and that the edges didn’t have sufficient time for forensic examinations and checking the identities of the lifeless.
Zelenskyy mentioned he suspected Russia’s plan was to play together with peace talks to appease the U.S. and stave off extra sanctions however with out ending the battle that Russian President Vladimir Putin believes he’s profitable.
He mentioned that due to this, Ukraine can be “in a very tough scenario” of deciding whether or not to proceed the talks in Istanbul.
Zelenskyy mentioned Ukraine was in opposition to Iran buying nuclear weapons, due to its navy partnership with Russia, however stopped in need of expressing specific help for Israel’s strikes. He repeated that the new war in the Middle East will affect Ukraine indirectly.
“Iran gave the Russians every little thing to kill us. They gave them martyrs, they gave them missiles, they usually gave them licenses. The truth that their manufacturing capacities have now grow to be weaker is (a) constructive for us. However at sure factors it could already be too late,” he mentioned, additionally citing Russia’s navy cooperation with North Korea.
Russia has modified Iran-made Shahed drones and has used them, usually a whole bunch at a time, in barrages focusing on Ukraine.
Zelenskyy mentioned 39 Russian firms had been concerned within the manufacturing of Oreshnik, an intermediate-range ballistic missile able to carrying a nuclear warhead. He mentioned 21 of them are usually not underneath sanctions. “And due to this fact it’s completely incomprehensible why sanctions shouldn’t be imposed urgently,” he mentioned.
Russia attacked Ukraine with the missile in November, marking a severe escalation within the battle and Russia’s capabilities.
Zelenskyy dispelled studies that Patriots air protection programs had been destroyed in current Russian drone and missile barrages. He additionally mentioned Ukraine has began utilizing domestically produced interceptors to shoot down Shahed drones and is searching for financing from Germany to ramp up the weapon’s manufacturing.
He added he despatched alerts to Western companions asking them to surrender 0.25% of their GDP to help Ukraine’s native protection business.
Zelenskyy mentioned it is probably he would attend a NATO summit later this week, however that he would make a last determination on Monday.
Although Zelenskyy didn’t meet Trump who had left early the Group of Seven summit in Canada final week, Ukraine’s Economic system Minister Yulia Svyrydenko and the top of the president’s workplace, Andriy Yermak, gave U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent an inventory of weapons Ukraine is hoping to buy. “We’ll wait suggestions,” Zelenskyy mentioned, including the package deal of weapons included Patriot programs.
The weapons package deal can be among the many matters Zelenskyy plans to debate with Trump of their subsequent assembly, he added, in addition to the difficulty of sanctions.
“Frankly, it appears to me that we have to speak about a brand new breath within the diplomatic observe,” he mentioned. “We’d like higher certainty and higher strain from the world on Putin.”
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Observe AP’s protection of the battle in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine