Russia hands over another 1,000 bodies of Ukrainian servicemen

Russia has transferred to Ukraine the bodies of another 1,000 individuals, which, according to Moscow, belong to Ukrainian servicemen.

As RBC-Ukraine reported, citing the Ukrainian Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, Ukrainian law enforcement investigators and forensic experts from the Interior Ministry will soon conduct all necessary examinations and identification procedures for the repatriated remains.

The large-scale repatriation effort was made possible through the coordinated work of several Ukrainian institutions, including the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, the Joint Center under the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Office of the Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada for Human Rights, the Secretariat of the Commissioner for Missing Persons under Special Circumstances, the State Emergency Service (SES), and other security and defense bodies.

In its statement, the Coordination Headquarters expressed special gratitude to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for its assistance and cooperation in the repatriation process.

“Special thanks go to the personnel of the Central Directorate of Civil-Military Cooperation of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Joint Center for Civil-Military Cooperation of the Armed Forces, which oversee the transportation of the repatriated bodies to designated state facilities, and arrange their transfer to law enforcement representatives under the Interior Ministry system and forensic experts of the Health Ministry,” the statement added.

Moscow and Kyiv have been conducting periodic exchanges of the dead as part of ongoing humanitarian arrangements. On September 18, Ukraine received the bodies of 1,000 soldiers, while Russia obtained 24.

Earlier, on August 19, the Coordination Headquarters announced the repatriation of another 1,000 bodies of Ukrainian servicemen, including the remains of five soldiers who had died in captivity. Those men had previously been identified as “seriously wounded and seriously ill” prisoners of war, slated for exchange under agreements reached during the second round of negotiations in Istanbul.

The Ukrainian side also confirmed that, following that repatriation, forensic examinations and identification work would be conducted by investigators in cooperation with Interior Ministry experts.

That August transfer came days after a prisoner exchange on August 14, during which Russia and Ukraine each released 84 detainees. The Russian Defence Ministry said the United Arab Emirates had played a mediating role in facilitating the exchange on humanitarian grounds.

The broader framework for such exchanges was established in early June, following a meeting between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul. The agreement prioritised the return of seriously wounded prisoners, captives aged 18 to 25, and the repatriation of fallen soldiers’ remains.

The first exchanges under this framework took place on June 9, followed by another on July 4.

By Tamilla Hasanova