Ukraine receives bodies of 1,212 soldiers

Ukraine has brought home the bodies of 1,212 servicemen killed in the war with Russia, following a major repatriation agreement reached in Istanbul last week.

The bodies, recovered from conflict zones in Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, and Russia’s Kursk region, are now being transferred to forensic experts for identification.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and relevant Ukrainian agencies were involved in the handover, which occurred at an undisclosed location. Photos released by Kyiv showed ICRC personnel near several refrigerated trucks used to transport the remains.

Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinsky, who led Moscow’s delegation in the Istanbul talks, said on 7 June that the Russian side had begun implementing the agreed steps and had delivered the 1,212 bodies in refrigerated vehicles to the exchange site. He noted that the rest of the 6,000 frozen Ukrainian soldiers’ remains are still en route.

Medinsky also stated that Russia had presented Ukraine with a first list of 640 prisoners of war—seriously wounded, ill, and under the age of 25—as part of the agreed exchange process. The two sides carried out this prisoner swap in two phases on 9 and 10 June.

Moscow has called on Kyiv to fully comply with the Istanbul agreements, after earlier accusing Ukraine of unexpected delays in accepting the bodies and carrying out the prisoner exchange.

Tags

News Politics Russia Ukraine soldier