Russia Returns Bodies of 563 Soldiers: Ukraine

Fri Nov 08 2024
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KYIV: Ukraine said on Friday that it had received the bodies of 563 soldiers from Russian authorities, mainly troops who had died in combat in the eastern Donetsk region.

The exchange of prisoners and the return of bodies remain one of the few areas of cooperation between Moscow and Kyiv since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

“The bodies of 563 fallen Ukrainian defenders were returned to Ukraine,” the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said in a statement on social media.

This announcement represents one of the largest repatriations of Ukrainian servicemen’s bodies since the beginning of the war.

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The statement said that 320 of the remains were returned from the Donetsk region, and 89 soldiers had been killed near Bakhmut, a town captured by Russia in May last year after a costly battle.

Another 154 bodies were returned from morgues inside Russia, the statement added.

Neither Russia nor Ukraine publicly disclose the total number of military personnel killed in the fighting. –AFP

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