Kyiv announced on Thursday that it had received 1,000 bodies from Russia, which Moscow claimed belonged to Ukrainian soldiers killed while fighting Russian forces.
The exchange of prisoners of war and the remains of fallen soldiers remains one of the few areas of cooperation between Kyiv and Moscow, which has been at war since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
“Today, repatriation measures took place, under which 1,000 bodies of the deceased, which the Russian side claims belong to Ukrainian defenders, were returned to Ukraine,” Kyiv’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said in a statement on social media.
Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky confirmed that an exchange had occurred, noting on Telegram that Russia had received the remains of 38 killed Russian soldiers.
Medinsky said the exchange was made possible as part of agreements struck between Ukrainian and Russian delegations in Istanbul earlier last year.
Tens of thousands of soldiers have been killed on both sides since Russia invaded, though neither side regularly publishes data on their own casualties.