Ukraine Receives First Batch of Corpses from Russia

(MENAFN) Ukraine announced on Wednesday that it has obtained the initial shipment of bodies of its deceased military personnel from Russia.

This transfer is part of a prisoner and body exchange arranged during the most recent direct peace negotiations held between the two nations in Istanbul last week.

The city of Istanbul hosted the second session of Russia-Ukraine peace discussions on June 2, succeeding the first meeting that also took place in the Turkish metropolis on May 16.

During these latest negotiations, both parties consented to swap additional prisoners of war, prioritizing the youngest and those gravely injured, as well as to return the remains of 6,000 soldiers from each side.

According to a message on Telegram from the Ukrainian Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, “As a result of the repatriation measures, the bodies of 1,212 fallen defenders were returned to Ukraine.”

The announcement further revealed that the repatriated bodies included servicemen who had fought in Ukraine’s Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions, alongside Russia’s border area of Kursk, where Kyiv launched an incursion in August of the previous year.

In April, Russia declared that it had successfully expelled Ukrainian forces from the region and subsequently claimed control over several settlements in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region, which borders Kursk.

While Kyiv refuted the claim of a complete withdrawal from Kursk, it acknowledged that the situation in the area remains “difficult.”

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