Another transfer of 1,200 bodies from Russia was received by Ukraine as part of an exchange agreement that was struck in Istanbul talks earlier this month, Ukrainian officials announced on Sunday.
“Another 1,200 bodies which the Russian side claims belong to Ukrainian citizens, including military personnel, were returned to Ukraine,” the coordination headquarters for the treatment of prisoners of war in Kyiv reported, adding that the bodies would have to be forensically identified.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov announced on Facebook that a total of 4,812 bodies have been returned this week. “I am grateful to everyone involved in this humanitarian mission,” he said.
Ukraine has not commented whether it has sent any bodies to the Russian side.
Russian news outlets also reported on the handover, which was part of a series of agreements reached between the two warring sides in Istanbul on June 2, that included also several prisoner exchanges.
According to the media reports, Russia did not receive any of its fallen soldiers from Ukraine on Sunday. Russia plans to return the bodies of 6,000 Ukrainians.
Exact extent of the losses remains unknown
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, neither Moscow nor Kyiv has typically disclosed its military losses.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told NBC, a US news channel, earlier this year that more than 46,000 Ukrainian soldiers have died and some 380,000 were hurt.
Russia has not disclosed the number of its military fatalities since September 2022, when it reported that fewer than 6,000 soldiers had died. This figure is widely considered to be significantly lower than the actual number of casualties.
Multiple independent investigations have reported significant losses of life among Moscow’s army, using open sources such as death announcements that local officials and family members published.
The Russian website Mediazona and the BBC’s Russian service claim to have identified the names of approximately 111,000 deceased Russian soldiers.
Edited by: Jenipher Camino Gonzalez
