Ukraine has repatriated 1,000 bodies of those killed in the war, which may include Ukrainian defenders, officials said Thursday. Authorities and experts will now work to identify the deceased.
“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 operation involved multiple Ukrainian agencies, including the Armed Forces, the Security Service, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and human rights offices.
Ukraine thanked the International Committee of the Red Cross for supporting the effort. Armed Forces units coordinated transport, handovers to law enforcement and medical examiners, and overall logistics.
The previous repatriation of bodies took place on Jan. 29.
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 18,000 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.