On Monday, the 16th of June, Ukraine and Russia completed the exchange of fallen soldiers. This was the final stage of the agreement reached in Istanbul on the return of human remains, according to the BBC.
In a statement, the Ukrainian government agency coordinating the repatriation said that “another 1 245 bodies have been returned to Ukraine,” bringing the total number of Ukrainian soldiers returned in recent days to 6 057.
It said that the identification process and “all necessary checks” would be carried out by Ukrainian law enforcement experts.
Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko accused Russia of “deliberately obstructing the identification process”. “The bodies are being returned in an extremely mutilated state, with parts of [the same] body in different bags,” he said.
The Russian Defence Ministry said in a statement that the remains of 1 248 Ukrainian soldiers had been handed over to Kyiv.
This figure was questioned by Klymenko, who said that in previous exchanges, Ukraine had “received the bodies of Russian soldiers mixed with Ukrainian bodies”.
Kremlin adviser Vladimir Medinsky, head of the Russian delegation in the peace talks, said that Moscow had returned a total of 6 060 Ukrainian soldiers’ remains. He said that Russia had received the remains of 78 of its own soldiers in return.
No immediate explanation was given for the discrepancy in the figures.
The Russian Ministry of Defence announced that Moscow is ready to hand over another 2 239 bodies to Ukraine.
Both Ukraine and Russia have stated that the process of exchanging prisoners of war is still ongoing.
“We are not stopping. The next stage lies ahead: we will continue the fight to recover our prisoners of war,” Ukrainian Defence Minister Umerov said on Facebook.
The latest exchange took place at an unknown location. Red Cross workers supervised the process. They refused to say how many bodies each side had handed over.
The only concrete result of the talks between Kyiv and Moscow in Istanbul was an agreement on the exchange of prisoners of war. The two sides still have very different views on how to end the war.
On Monday night, Russia launched drones and missiles at the capital Kyiv, killing at least 14 people and injuring at least 44 in the biggest attack on the capital so far. Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said that a total of 440 drones and 32 missiles were fired at the country.
Russian air defence forces intercepted and destroyed 147 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory, including in the Moscow region, during the night, the Russian Defence Ministry said on Tuesday.
Russia and Ukraine fulfill agreement on repatriation of dead soldiers
