Ukraine says received another 1,200 bodies from Russia

KYIV, Ukraine: Ukraine on Sunday said it had received another transfer of 1,200 bodies from Russia as part of an exchange agreement struck in Istanbul talks earlier this month.

“Another 1,200 bodies which the Russian side claims belong to Ukrainian citizens, including military personnel, were returned to Ukraine,” Kyiv’s headquarters for the treatment of prisoners of war wrote on social media.

“In total, 4,812 bodies have been returned this week,” Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov said on Facebook. “I am grateful to everyone involved in this humanitarian mission,” he said. Ukraine has not said whether it has transferred any bodies to the Russian side.

The two sides agreed a large-scale exchange of prisoners and bodies of killed soldiers during their latest round of direct talks in Istanbul on June 2. Both Russia and Ukraine typically do not disclose their military losses.

In a rare public estimate, President Volodymyr Zelensky told US news outlet NBC earlier this year that more than 46,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and some 380,000 wounded.

Russia has not announced its military deaths since September 2022, when it said fewer than 6,000 soldiers had been killed -- a figure believed to be vastly lower than reality.

Several independent investigations using open sources, such as the publication of death announcements by local officials and family members,

have reported massive death tolls for Moscow’s army.

The Russian website Mediazona and the BBC’s Russian service said they had identified the names of some 111,000 killed Russian soldiers.