Russia's Defense Ministry said Kyiv rejected a proposed humanitarian pause in Konstantinovka, a Donbass city recently described by Moscow as having been taken by Russian forces.
The proposed pause would have stopped shelling in the city to allow the transfer of bodies of Ukrainian soldiers killed during the fighting. The ministry said the discussions on such a pause were conducted through intelligence channels.
Moscow framed the rejection as a decision that prevented the fallen soldiers from being returned to their families for burial. The ministry also used sharply critical language toward the Ukrainian leadership, accusing it of treating dead service members as expendable.
The claim comes after Russia announced the capture of Konstantinovka earlier in the week. The city has been presented by Russian analysts and military figures as an important point on Ukraine's eastern front.
Konstantinovka is described in the account as part of a wider fortified line known as the "Fortress Belt," a defensive barrier that Ukraine had built over more than a decade. Its fall, Moscow-linked assessments argue, would open a breach in that system.
The episode adds a humanitarian dimension to a battle whose military significance is being contested through public statements, battlefield claims and the handling of soldiers killed in action.
