The Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War continues the process of returning the bodies of the fallen defenders of Mariupol, the Central Intelligence Agency of Ukraine reported.
To date, the bodies of 210 Ukrainian service members have been returned. Most of them are defenders of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol.
"All fallen soldiers need to be returned to the Ukraine-controlled territory. And each of them is escorted to the last journey with honors due to the heroes, "the statement reads.
Efforts to bring back all captured Ukrainian defenders continue.
- Yesterday, the Russian side began handing over to Ukraine the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers who died at the Azovstal metallurgical plant in Mariupol. Dozens of bodies taken from a bombed-out plant currently occupied by Russians have been transported to Kyiv. DNA testing is underway to identify the remains.
- On the evening of May 16, the evacuation of Ukrainian service members from the Azovstal plant in Mariupol began. More than 250 fighters were the first to leave. At that time, 53 seriously wounded soldiers were taken to a hospital in occupied Novoazovsk. Another 211 servicemen were sent to the occupied settlement of Olenivka.
- On May 19, members of the International Committee of the Red Cross visited some Ukrainian servicemen who had left the Azovstal plant in Mariupol and were in occupied Olenivka, Donetsk Oblast. The visit was confidential; details of the detention conditions of Ukrainian defenders are not disclosed.
- On June 5, the wife of a Mariupol defender said that the pre-trial detention center in Mariupol was overcrowded and that food and water supplies needed to be improved.
- President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that more than 2,500 defenders of Mariupol were being held captive by the Russians. He believes that it is unprofitable for the Russians to torture the Ukrainian military from Azovstal because they are "public prisoners." Zelensky also noted that the Central Intelligence Agency is handling their release.