russia accuses Ukraine of disrupting prisoner exchange to discredit negotiations - ISW
Kyiv • UNN
russia groundlessly accused Ukraine of disrupting the exchange of prisoners and the repatriation of the bodies of the dead. This is part of the Kremlin's efforts to discredit Ukraine in the international arena.
Russia groundlessly accused Ukraine of failing to exchange prisoners of war on June 6 and not returning the bodies of dead soldiers to their homeland. This is part of the Kremlin's efforts to undermine mutually agreed confidence-building measures with Ukraine. This is stated in a report by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), reports UNN.
Details
Analysts point out that the Kremlin remains committed to promoting narratives that denigrate Ukraine in order to "socialize" its domestic audience ahead of a possible Russian withdrawal from any peace agreement in the future and to discredit Ukraine on the international stage.
The Kremlin's unwillingness to engage in good faith in lower-level confidence-building measures aimed at facilitating broader peace talks further demonstrates Russia's lack of interest in peace talks.
They also note that Russian officials continue to try to shift the blame from Russia to Western countries for the lack of progress in the peace settlement. In particular, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov recently accused European states of becoming the main obstacle to peace talks on Ukraine.
Ryabkov argued that the United States is aware that Russia will not deviate - even in the face of threats of new sanctions - from its position on the need to address the alleged "root causes" of the war
Analysts conclude that Russia is not interested in meaningful negotiations with Ukraine and is likely to "set information conditions for prolonging or possibly expanding the war."
Reminder
Earlier, the aide to the head of the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin, the head of the Russian delegation in Istanbul, Vladimir Medinsky, said that Russia allegedly started the implementation of the return of bodies of Ukrainian soldiers and the exchange of prisoners and accused Ukraine of allegedly unexpectedly postponing it indefinitely.
Later, the Ukrainian Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War reported that the statements of the Russian side do not correspond to reality and previous agreements neither on the exchange of prisoners nor on the repatriation of bodies.