Maria Zakharova: Did Zelensky decide not to collect the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers or did NATO order him to do so

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova expressed doubt whether Vladimir Zelensky personally decided not to collect the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers or was he banned from NATO membership, RIA Novosti reports, quoted by FOCUS.

"Is it Zelensky's personal decision not to collect the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers or did someone from NATO forbid him?“. Zakharova wrote this on her Telegram channel, commenting on a message from Alexander Zorin, a representative of the Russian negotiating team, that Russia is waiting for Kiev to confirm that the transfer of the bodies will take place.

Earlier, the assistant to the Russian president, Vladimir Medinsky, stated on his Telegram channel that "on June 6, Russia launched an operation to transfer more than 6,000 bodies of the dead to Ukraine and exchange wounded and seriously ill prisoners of war". Medinsky is forced to comment on the situation with the exchange of prisoners of war and the transfer of the bodies of servicemen from the Ukrainian Armed Forces to Ukraine in accordance with the Istanbul Agreements, "since the Ukrainian side did not appear at the place of the proposed exchange, although the date was announced in advance".

The representative of the Russian negotiating team, Lieutenant General Alexander Zorin, stated that Ukraine had not established contact, which is why the actions to transfer the bodies of the deceased servicemen from the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the exchange of prisoners did not take place.