Ukraine said on Tuesday it had received the bodies of 1,000 fallen soldiers in a repatriation operation carried out with Russian cooperation.
“Today, repatriation measures were carried out as part of which 1,000 bodies (remains) of the deceased were returned to Ukraine. According to the Russian side, these remains belong to Ukrainian defenders who were killed,” the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said in a statement on social media.
The statement added that investigators and expert institutions under the interior ministry will carry out all necessary examinations and identify the repatriated remains.
The previous repatriation of bodies took place on Dec. 19.
Exchanges of prisoners and repatriations of bodies have continued intermittently between Ukraine and Russia despite the lack of broader progress toward ending the war.
According to publicly available data, Ukraine has received about 17,000 bodies from Russia since the start of the full-scale invasion.
During earlier talks in Istanbul, Ukraine and Russia agreed to repatriate the bodies of fallen soldiers on a “6,000 for 6,000” basis.
The first exchange took place on June 11, when 1,212 bodies of Ukrainian soldiers who had died in the east and south of the country, as well as in Russia’s Kursk region, were returned, with another 1,200 on June 13, 1,200 more on June 14, and 1,000 on Aug. 19.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs said Russia often deliberately complicates the identification process by transferring severely damaged corpses, which on occasion have included the bodies of Russian troops.
Despite the challenges, the repatriation and identification of those who died defending Ukraine are considered one of Kyiv’s most essential and important, if difficult, missions.