KYIV (Reuters) -Ukraine said on Friday it had received the bodies of 1,200 Ukrainian soldiers killed in the war with Russia as part of agreements to exchange both prisoners of war and the dead.
“According to the Russian side, the bodies belong to Ukrainian citizens, including military personnel,” the prisoner exchange coordination committee said on Telegram, adding that experts will conduct identification tests.
The committee released pictures of people in white protective suits with a logo of the International Committee of the Red Cross at an undisclosed location, standing and walking near railway carriages.
Earlier this week, Ukraine repatriated another 1,212 bodies of its servicemen killed in the war, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Kyiv and Moscow have agreed to each hand over as many as 6,000 bodies and to exchange sick and heavily wounded prisoners of war and those aged under 25.
Ukraine and Russia have conducted three exchanges of POWs this week but not disclosed exact numbers.
(Reporting by Olena Harmash; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
Comments