Kyiv says bodies of 1,212 servicemen were returned to Ukraine, while Moscow has yet to confirm swap
Ukraine on Wednesday said that it received the first batch of bodies of its deceased soldiers from Russia as part of a swap agreed upon during the latest round of direct peace talks between the two countries in Istanbul last week.
On June 2, Istanbul hosted the second round of Russia-Ukraine peace talks, following the first round that was also held in the Turkish metropolis on May 16.
During the latest talks, the two sides agreed to exchange more prisoners of war – focusing on the youngest and most severely wounded – and the return of the bodies of 6,000 soldiers from each side.
“As a result of the repatriation measures, the bodies of 1,212 fallen defenders were returned to Ukraine,” the Ukrainian Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said in a statement on Telegram.
The statement said that among the bodies returned to Ukraine include servicemen who fought in the country's Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions, as well as Russia's border region of Kursk, where Kyiv had launched an incursion in August last year.
In April, Russia said it managed to fully push Ukrainian forces out of the region, and has since claimed to have captured multiple settlements in Ukraine's northeastern Sumy region, which lies adjacent to Kursk.
Kyiv has denied being fully pushed out of Kursk, but has noted that the conditions in the area are “difficult.”
The statement said that the bodies of its servicemen were returned following the joint work of multiple government bodies, and thanked the International Committee of the Red Cross for its assistance.
“Investigators of law enforcement agencies, together with expert institutions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, will establish the identities of the deceased as soon as possible,” it added.
Russia has yet to confirm the swap, though Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists in a briefing that Moscow is fulfilling its obligations as part of the deals agreed on in Istanbul and expects the Ukrainian side to do the same.
On Sunday, a representative of Russia's negotiating team said that Moscow delivered the bodies of 1,212 Ukrainian servicemen to the exchange area, according to state news agency TASS.
