Ukraine Repatriates 1,212 Fallen Soldiers’ Bodies Amid Tense Russia-Ukraine Negotiations
On June 11, Ukraine brought home the remains of 1,212 soldiers who had lost their lives in the ongoing war with Russia.
The Gaze reports on this with reference to Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters for Prisoner Affairs.
The bodies, recovered from battlefields across key regions including Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson, as well as the Russian region of Kursk, were repatriated following a series of negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow.
The repatriation was managed by Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters for Prisoner Affairs, with images released showing the bodies being transported in refrigerated trucks, some of which were marked with the “On the Shield” emblem, associated with the Ukrainian organization dedicated to retrieving and evacuating military casualties.
This repatriation marks a significant step in the prisoner exchange efforts between Russia and Ukraine.
However, tensions surrounding the process have emerged, with Russian officials, including Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky, claiming that Ukraine had initially delayed accepting the bodies.
Meanwhile, Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters clarified that while an agreement on the repatriation of the bodies was made, no final date for the exchange had been set, citing concerns over Russia’s unilateral actions.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently noted that of the 6,000 bodies expected to be returned by Russia, only a fraction had been identified, complicating the process further.
Despite this, Ukrainian authorities are moving swiftly to identify the remains, with experts from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, law enforcement, and health institutions working on the task.
Read more on The Gaze: Russia’s War on Ukraine: An Unprecedented Act of Genocide Targeting Ukraine’s National Identity and Existence