Ukraine says Russia returned more than 500 soldiers’ bodies

KYIV (Ukraine): Kyiv connected Friday said Russian authorities returned implicit 500 bodies of Ukrainian soldiers killed successful combat, with astir having died successful the eastbound Donetsk region.

Russia and Ukraine person been exchanging bodies and prisoners of warfare since the archetypal months of the struggle -- with casualties estimated to beryllium precocious connected some sides.

“As a effect of repatriation activities, the bodies of 502 fallen defenders were returned to territory controlled by the authorities of Ukraine,“ Kyiv’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said connected societal media.

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The centre said that 397 of the bodies were returned from the embattled Donetsk region, wherever warring is astir intense.

It said 24 were returned from the eastbound Lugansk portion and 64 from the confederate Zaporizhzhia area, portion 17 were handed backmost from morgues connected Russian territory.

“We are grateful for the assistance of the International Committee of the Red Cross,“ Kyiv’s centre said.

It said the bodies volition beryllium taken for forensic aesculapian introspection and that “together with the adept institutions, the deceased volition beryllium identified arsenic soon arsenic possible.”

Russia, for its part, does not denote the instrumentality of its bodies.