In one of the few instances of collaboration between the warring neighbours, Kyiv said on Saturday that Russia had returned 528 remains to Ukraine that were identified as Ukrainian soldiers killed in combat.
Ukraine’s POW centre posted on social media, “The bodies of 528 deceased individuals have been returned to Ukraine as a result of repatriation efforts; according to the Russian side, they may be Ukrainian servicemen,” but it did not say when the remains were received.
A day after Russia and Ukraine exchanged 205 prisoners of war each, the centre declared, “Investigators and experts will take all necessary steps to identify the repatriated deceased.”
US President Donald Trump declared last Friday that there would be a three-day ceasefire in the battle from Saturday to Monday and that 1,000 prisoners from each side would be exchanged.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, confirmed that Friday’s prisoner exchange was the first part of the trade that Trump had announced.
One of the rare areas of collaboration between Moscow and Kyiv since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine more than four years ago has been the exchange of prisoners and the remains of fallen combatants.
