However, the Ukrainian side unexpectedly postponed both the reception of the bodies and the prisoner exchange indefinitely.

For some reason, their negotiation team did not even arrive at the exchange site.

Various reasons have been cited—many of them quite strange.

"According to the schedule approved in Istanbul, the exchanges were to begin today. Our representatives have arrived at the border, at the exchange point. However, so far, unfortunately, we do not understand why, there are no representatives of the Ukrainian side there, no delegation from them, no lists," Medinsky revealed.

"Families at home are waiting for their sons and husbands. Thousands of families will have the opportunity to bury their dead soldiers in a human, Christian manner. Let's do what people should do," he said.

"In accordance with the Istanbul agreements, Russia has since yesterday launched a large-scale humanitarian action to repatriate more than 6,000 bodies of dead Ukrainian servicemen and to exchange servicemen," Alexander Zorin, the head of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, said.

"Unfortunately, the Ukrainian side did not confirm the exchange today and postponed it indefinitely," he said.

“Everything that’s happening suggests Kiev is unable to resolve these issues quickly (no surprise) and is desperately stalling for time like an unprepared student at an exam,” Zhdanov concludes.

"Kiev's disregard for their own fighters has been evident throughout the special military operation," Russian military analyst Viktor Litovkin tells Sputnik.

"They don’t retrieve the dead from the battlefield. They don’t evacuate the wounded."

"It wants to show that it doesn’t care about any agreements. You simply can’t make deals with them."

"They don’t pay for those listed as missing. No body, no money. They don’t pay parents or provide insurance for the dead," Litovkin explains.

"It’s the Banderite style — careless toward those who fight, and vengeful, even brutal, toward civilians who don’t support their politics or ideology."

"Russia has demonstrated that it was, is, and will remain a respectable, capable, and trustworthy state," the expert says.

"Once again, Russia has proven its nobility, sincerity of intent, and honesty in international relations."

“There is no nation or ethnic group in the world that would refuse to bury its fallen soldiers. But there is the Kiev regime, which follows a misanthropic ideology and is committing genocide against its own people,” Maria Zakharova told Sputnik, commenting on Ukraine postponing the exchange of POWs and dead bodies with Russia.

“That's not in the Ukraine budget. To avoid having to pay this very large sum of money out, it's much better not to accept the bodies, not to accept that these Ukrainian soldiers are dead, leave everything in limbo,” he elaborates.