From: Transform Ukulele By Douglas Landro / June 8, 2025
As Russia Fabricates Excuses to Block Humanitarian Exchanges While Launching Devastating Attacks on Ukraine’s Second-Largest City, American Democrats Demand Trump Show Backbone Against Putin
Summary of the Day – June 7, 2025
Russia manufactured false claims about Ukraine failing to appear for a planned prisoner exchange, despite having agreed to swap severely wounded POWs and return 6,000 bodies during Istanbul talks. Russian officials blamed Europe for blocking peace while their military launched devastating strikes on Kharkiv, killing five civilians and injuring 37 with KAB bombs targeting a children’s railway station. Ukraine shot down a Russian Su-35 fighter jet in Kursk Oblast and advanced near Toretsk while striking the Azot chemical plant in Russia’s Tula Oblast for the second time. Senate Democrats demanded Trump “show backbone” against Putin’s escalating brutality as the president signaled potential sanctions use. The day exposed Russia’s bad faith diplomacy—manipulating humanitarian issues while intensifying civilian terror campaigns.
The Humanitarian Charade: Russia’s False Claims Expose True Intentions
The facade of Russian commitment to confidence-building measures collapsed dramatically on June 7 as Moscow launched a coordinated disinformation campaign to blame Ukraine for the failure of a planned prisoner exchange. Russian Presidential Aide Vladimir Medinsky, alongside Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin and GRU intelligence officer Alexander Zorin, claimed that Ukrainian representatives had simply failed to appear at the Belarus border for an agreed exchange of severely wounded POWs and the repatriation of 6,000 bodies of fallen soldiers.
The accusations represented classic Russian dezinformatsiya—mixing half-truths with outright fabrications to paint Ukraine as unreliable while positioning Russia as the reasonable party. According to the Russian narrative, their representatives had waited patiently at the border to work out technical details for the exchange, only to be stood up by Ukrainian counterparts who had “unexpectedly postponed both the transfer of bodies and the POW exchange indefinitely.”
Voice of Ukraine 