Russia, Ukraine confirm 1st swap of bodies as part of deal reached at Istanbul peace talks

On June 2, Istanbul hosted the second round of Russia-Ukraine peace talks, following the first round held on May 16.

During the latest talks, the two sides agreed to exchange more prisoners of war – focusing on the youngest and most severely wounded – and the return of the bodies of 6,000 soldiers from each side.

“As a result of the repatriation measures, the bodies of 1,212 fallen defenders were returned to Ukraine,” the Ukrainian Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said in a statement on Telegram.

The bodies that were returned to Ukraine include servicemen who fought in the country’s Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions, as well as Russia’s border region of Kursk, where Kyiv had launched an incursion in August last year, the statement said.

In April, Russia said it managed to fully push Ukrainian forces out of the region, and has since claimed to have captured multiple settlements in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region, which lies adjacent to Kursk.

Kyiv has denied being fully pushed out of Kursk, but has noted that the conditions in the area are “difficult.”

The statement said that the bodies of its servicemen were returned following the joint work of multiple government bodies, and thanked the International Committee of the Red Cross for its assistance.

“Investigators of law enforcement agencies, together with expert institutions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, will establish the identities of the deceased as soon as possible,” it added.

In a later statement on Telegram, Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky confirmed that the transfer of bodies as part of the deal reached in Istanbul began, and that Moscow transferred 1,212 bodies to the Ukrainian side while Kyiv returned the bodies of 27 Russian soldiers.

"Tomorrow we will also begin urgent 'sanitary exchanges' of seriously wounded prisoners from the front line," Medinsky added.