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Russia has handed over the bodies of 1,200 fallen soldiers to Ukraine, confirmed officials in Kyiv on Sunday, marking a sombre yet significant step in an ongoing prisoner exchange mechanism between the two countries.

 

The arrangement follows high-level talks held in Istanbul earlier this month. Despite the absence of a wider breakthrough, the agreement on the return of remains has been interpreted by observers as a constructive move, raising faint hopes for eventual de-escalation.

 

"Another 1,200 bodies, which the Russian side claims belong to Ukrainian citizens, including military personnel, were returned to Ukraine," Russian authorities stated in an official communication on Sunday.

 

Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, writing on Facebook, said: “I am grateful to everyone involved in this humanitarian mission.” He confirmed that a total of 4,812 bodies had been returned this week.

 

As of Sunday, Ukrainian authorities had not confirmed whether any Russian remains had been returned in kind. Russian officials, on their part, have not acknowledged receiving any such bodies from Ukraine.

Also read: Russia ready for next round of Ukraine peace negotiations: Putin

 

However, reports suggest that Moscow plans to repatriate the bodies of as many as 6,000 Ukrainian soldiers in future exchanges.

 

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, both sides have maintained strict opacity over casualty figures. Independent estimates place the combined military losses anywhere between 150,000 and 300,000, with Ukraine believed to have suffered more heavily.

 

In a rare statement earlier this year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky revealed that over “46,000 Ukrainian soldiers have died and some 380,000 were hurt.”

 

Russia, for its part, has not updated its official military fatality count since September 2022, when it stated that fewer than 6,000 of its soldiers had perished.

 

Humanitarian corridors and arrangements such as the current prisoner exchange are among the few remaining channels of dialogue between the warring nations. Diplomats have stressed the importance of such gestures, even in the absence of a permanent ceasefire agreement.