Russia hands bodies of over 1,200 soldiers to Ukraine

Russia has returned the remains of 1,212 Ukrainian soldiers killed in combat, in the latest exchange between Moscow and Kiev, Kremlin official Vladimir Medinsky confirmed on Wednesday.

The transfer was first announced by Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War. It said the bodies were recovered from the front lines in Russia’s Kursk, Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporozhye regions, as well as Ukraine’s Kharkov Region. No names or further details were released.

Medinsky, who serves as Moscow’s chief negotiator in talks with Kiev, said Russia received the remains of 27 of its own troops. “Now they can be buried in a Christian manner,” he said in a statement on Telegram. He added that the two sides had agreed to begin “urgent sanitary exchanges” involving severely wounded prisoners of war. “Russia does not abandon its own people,” Medinsky said.

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Moscow has previously stated it is prepared to return the remains of more than 6,000 Ukrainian troops, but has accused Kiev of delaying acceptance.

Moscow decided to return the bodies during talks with Kiev in Istanbul earlier this month. However, while Russia completed the delivery of the bodies to the designated exchange areas, Ukraine rescheduled the meeting without prior notice, and their representatives were nowhere to be found, Medinsky said at the time.

Despite this, Russian Lieutenant General Aleksandr Zorin, who was part of Moscow’s negotiating team, signaled that the country was fully ready to honor the agreement, saying “it is a purely humanitarian action. Not the first of such kind and, regrettably, not the last one.”

As part of the Istanbul process, Russia and Ukraine have also agreed to conduct several POW exchanges. The exchanges have continued after the second round of talks, with the total number of soldiers estimated at between 1,000 and 1,200 in the latest swap, according to Medinsky.