Russia and Ukraine have exchanged the bodies of soldiers for the first time since February, parliamentary deputy Shamsail Saraliev told the Russian news portal rbc.ru on Thursday.
He said the Ukrainian side had received 1,000 killed soldiers, while Russia received 41 bodies. The politician is responsible in the Duma for matters relating to the “special military operation,” as the war is officially called in Moscow.
The last exchange of remains took place in February.
The office of prisoner-of-war affairs in Kiev confirmed on Telegram that Ukraine had received 1,000 bodies which. The authority thanked the International Committee of the Red Cross for its support.
Forensic experts would now examine the bodies, it said. This is intended to rule out, among other things, that bodies of Russian soldiers were handed over by mistake.
The staff added that “after the identification of the deceased, the bodies will be handed over to the families for dignified burial.”
Russia and Ukraine exchange soldiers’ bodies on a regular basis. Last year alone, Kiev received back more than 15,000 bodies of fallen soldiers, according to official figures. Moscow received only a fraction of that.
Due to the slow but steady advance of Russian troops, the Ukrainian army is not always able to recover its own fallen soldiers. Ukraine has been defending itself against a Russian invasion with Western help for more than four years.
A car is seen burning at the site of an airstrike on Kramatorsk. Natasha Rudenko/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa