Bodies of 1 200 war dead returned to Ukraine

The Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War reported that the bodies of 1 200 dead have been returned to Ukraine.

"According to the Russian side, the bodies belong to Ukrainian citizens, in particular military personnel," the Coordination Headquarters noted.

Law enforcement investigators, together with expert institutions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, will conduct examinations and identify the repatriated bodies.

The repatriation was carried out according to agreements in Istanbul, after the second round of negotiations between Ukraine and Russia.

Earlier, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia had only identified 15-20% of the bodies of the dead that it currently has. And there were cases when the Russians gave the bodies of Russian soldiers instead of Ukrainian ones.

• The second round of talks between Ukraine and Russia concluded in Istanbul on June 2. The parties decided to focus on exchanges in the “all-for-all” format in the following categories: seriously wounded and seriously ill, and young people aged 18 to 25. They also agreed to exchange 6 000 bodies of dead soldiers. Russia later accused Ukraine of disrupting the exchange of prisoners and bodies of the fallen. Kyiv denied this.
• A few days ago, on June 11, the bodies of 1 212 fallen defenders were returned to Ukraine. Among them were fighters who fought in Kursk, Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions.

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