Russia hands over remains of 1,000 troops to Ukraine – Putin’s aide

Moscow has returned the bodies of another 1,000 fallen Ukrainian soldiers, Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky has said.

Russia has received the remains of 19 of its soldiers from Ukraine in return, Medinsky, Moscow’s top negotiator during the talks with Kiev in Türkiye, wrote on Telegram on Tuesday.

The bodies were returned to Kiev “in line with the Istanbul agreements,” he added.

Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War confirmed that it had received the remains of 1,000 servicemen.

The swap follows a summit on Friday between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his American counterpart Donald Trump in Anchorage, Alaska, and the US president’s meetings in Washington on Monday with Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky and Western European leaders, during which a possible settlement of the conflict between Moscow and Kiev was discussed.

Moscow offered to repatriate the remains of over 6,000 of Kiev’s troops as a humanitarian gesture during the second round of talks between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul in early June. The promised number of bodies was transferred to Ukraine in the following weeks in several stages. Russia received the remains of 79 of its fallen soldiers in exchange.

Putin announced later that Moscow was ready to return another 3,000 bodies to Kiev.