Ukraine Repatriates 1,000 Bodies of Fallen Soldiers

Ukraine has received the bodies of 1,000 fallen servicemen under a repatriation agreement with Russia.

The Gaze reports this referring to an announcement made by the country’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said on Tuesday.

The handover took place on August 19 following earlier arrangements. According to the Russian side, the remains belong to Ukrainian soldiers killed in combat. 

Among them were five servicemen who died in captivity, despite being listed for exchange as severely wounded or seriously ill under agreements reached in Istanbul during the second round of negotiations.

Ukrainian officials accused Moscow of deliberately stalling and failing to honor its commitments. They reiterated calls for the immediate release of all prisoners who are gravely ill or wounded and pledged to continue pressing for the return of all Ukrainian citizens held in Russia.

The Coordination Headquarters said the bodies included defenders from the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk, and Kursk fronts. 

Forensic examinations and identification will be conducted by law enforcement investigators and experts from the Interior Ministry in the coming days.

The officials expressed gratitude to the International Committee of the Red Cross for its assistance and extended special thanks to the Armed Forces’ Civil-Military Cooperation units, which arranged the transportation of the remains to specialized state institutions and coordinated their transfer to law enforcement and forensic authorities.

A similar operation in July also saw 1,000 bodies returned to Ukraine, officials said.

As The Gaze reported earlier, Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs has revealed that Russia included the remains of its own servicemen among the bodies of Ukrainian defenders during July repatriations.