[pavon]

Close. They were meant to be disposed via controlled entry on a Japanese craft, but the astronauts that were going to do the work were delayed due to issues with Soyuz, and they couldn't keep the Japanese craft around indefinitely due to other conflicts.

[dotnet00]

Ah that makes much more sense! I recalled that it was Soyuz that was delayed, but had been thinking that if they were disposing they'd probably do it via Progress and so, was a bit confused. I remembered that the reason for the uncontrolled disposal was the Soyuz delay and just went with that.