Ukraine announced today that it has taken over 1.200 more bodies of its fallen soldiers and citizens from Russia, under an exchange agreement concluded in the second round of talks between the two warring parties in Istanbul earlier this month.
"Another 1.200 bodies have been returned to Ukraine, which the Russian side says are Ukrainian citizens, including military personnel," the Ukrainian Coordination Center for Prisoners of War announced on social media.
During talks in Istanbul, Turkey, in early June, Kiev and Moscow agreed to release all young or wounded prisoners of war and to return the bodies of fallen fighters, which was the only tangible result of those negotiations.
Since then, the two sides have conducted four rounds of prisoner exchanges, with Ukraine taking back 1.200 bodies on Saturday, 1.200 on Friday and 1.212 on Wednesday, for a total of 4.812 bodies.
Russia said on Wednesday it had taken over the bodies of 27 Russian soldiers handed over by Ukraine. It made no announcements about the exchange on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
According to one source involved in the exchange, cited by the Russian news agency Tass, Ukraine did not hand over any bodies to Russia on Sunday.
The return of soldiers' bodies and the exchange of prisoners of war are rare areas in which Kiev and Moscow have cooperated since the launch of Russia's war in February 2022.
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