Ukraine announced Friday that it received the bodies of 250 killed soldiers in one of the largest exchanges of servicemen remains since Russia invaded in February 2022.
The two warring sides regularly exchange soldiers’ bodies as well as prisoners of war in rare diplomatic dealmaking involving Moscow and Kyiv.
“As a result of repatriation operations, the bodies of 250 fallen Ukrainian defenders were returned to Ukraine,” Kyiv’s Coordination Centre for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said in a statement.
“This is one of the biggest” operations of its kind, the agency’s spokesman told AFP.
Kyiv said it handed over the remains of 38 Russian soldiers as part of the deal, which was mediated by the International Red Cross.
DNA analysis will be used to identify the bodies before releasing them into the custody of the families for funeral ceremonies and burials.
Some of those returned were Ukrainian soldiers who had fought in the southern port city of Mariupol, which was captured by Russian forces in May 2022.
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