The bodies of over 6,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been handed over to Kiev as agreed, Vladimir Medinsky has announced
Russia has returned the bodies of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers, Moscow’s chief negotiator for the Ukraine conflict, Vladimir Medinsky, has said.
Moscow repatriated a total of 6,060 sets of military remains, the presidential aide said in an update posted on Telegram on Monday. Kiev returned the bodies of 78 slain Russian soldiers, he added.
The exchange was agreed upon during the latest round of direct talks between Moscow and Kiev, hosted by Türkiye, in June. Medinsky’s Ukrainian counterpart, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, suggested at the time that Kiev would hand over an equal number of killed Russian troops.
In April, Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky stated in the interview that Ukraine had lost up to 100,000 troops since the escalation of the conflict in 2022. Russian Defense Ministry estimates suggest that Kiev’s losses are an order of magnitude higher than that, as of the end of 2024, with more than half of the total casualties suffered that year.
The handover of military remains to Ukraine was jeopardized after Kiev reportedly refused to accept the first batch, on June 7. Ukrainian officials blamed Russia for being too hasty, though the exchange started the following day and and continued over the past week.
Kiev presently relies on mandatory conscription of men aged at least 25 years to refill the ranks of its armed forces and is currently considering making men over 60 years old eligible for the army.
The mobilization campaign has been undermined by mass draft avoidance and alleged corruption among military officials responsible for recruitment.
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