The Russian Defense Ministry said that Ukraine refused to suspend hostilities in Konstantinovka to transport the bodies of dead Ukrainian soldiers.
The Russian Military Ministry announced that “while studying this issue through the special services, the Ukrainian side abandoned this proposal.”
Until the news was published, the Ukrainian authorities had not commented on this statement nor announced that they had refused to stop the fighting in Konstantinovka in order to recover the bodies of the dead.
The Ministry of Defense had previously stated that it was offering Ukraine, starting from July 6 from 12:00 to 18:00, to stop the bombing of Konstantinovka “to carry out humanitarian action.” The Military Ministry said that the Ukrainian side should submit its decision before noon on July 5.
Russian authorities announced late in the evening of 3 July that Russian forces had completely captured Konstantinovka. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky described this statement as a “lie.” “If Konstantinovka is now under Russian control, Putin will probably have no problem meeting with me there and finding diplomatic solutions to finally end the war,” he said.
As of the evening of July 5, independent monitoring projects had not confirmed that Russian forces had fully captured Konstantinovka.