Russia passes off 20 Russian bodies as Ukrainian troops, including Israeli mercenary - Zelenskyy

He said this during a conversation with journalists.

"During repatriations, it has already been recorded that the bodies of 20 people handed over to us as our fallen soldiers are Russians. For example, there is an Israeli mercenary who fought on their side — a citizen of Israel with Israeli documents. Although they told us that these are only Ukrainians and only military personnel," Zelenskyy said.

According to him, it has been documented that Russians have been "planting" the corpses of their own citizens, sometimes even with Russian passports.

"This means they themselves cannot even verify who they are sending, as it is a large number of people. An examination is needed. And how much time that will take, I honestly don’t know," Zelenskyy noted.

• Ukraine's Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko stated that during the latest repatriations, Russia, along with the bodies of fallen Ukrainian defenders, also transferred the bodies of its own soldiers to Ukraine. This was likely done intentionally.