Ukraine has repatriated the remains of 1,212 troops who perished in the country’s war with Russia, officials responsible for coordinating prisoner exchanges in Kyiv said.
The Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, the country’s coordination agency, confirmed the development on Wednesday through the Telegram messaging app. “As a result of the activities of repatriation, the bodies of 1,212 fallen defenders have been brought back to Ukraine,” the committee declared.
Photographs released from the scene demonstrate International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) staff members walking close to numerous refrigerated vehicles at a location not disclosed. Some of the vehicles had the emblem of ‘On the Shield’, a Ukrainian organization committed to the recovery and movement of military casualties.
The repatriation of corpses comes after recent talks between Kyiv and Moscow, whereby the two parties agreed on a mass exchange of dead soldiers. Nevertheless, the realization of that agreement has been encountering some hiccups.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, while addressing a June 2 briefing, indicated that Russia had intended to repatriate 6,000 corpses but that ‘only approximately 15% of them had been identified’.
“We had one moment already when they were sending bodies to us and also sending bodies of Russian dead soldiers,” Zelenskyy said.
The 1,212 bodies recovered will now be transferred to Ukraine’s Interior Ministry, law enforcement bodies, and the Health Ministry. Forensic officials will start the process of identifying the deceased at the earliest.
The repatriation follows closely on the heels of the large prisoner of war exchange on Monday. In what seemed to be the first in a series of choreographed exchanges, young prisoners younger than 25 were freed by both countries, leading to heartfelt reunions.
In the meanwhile, fighting goes on. Russia asserted on Monday that its troops had made gains in Ukraine’s east-central Dnipropetrovsk province. To this effect, Kyiv reported that Moscow had launched its biggest drone campaign since the inception of the complete-scale invasion in 2022.
