As part of recent peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv — which yielded no breakthrough but resulted in an agreement on a prisoner swap — Russia will hand over 6,000 bodies of deceased Ukrainian soldiers, according to media reports. The second round of talks between Russia and Ukraine was held in Istanbul on Monday.
Kremlin aide who headed the Russian delegation in the second round of peace talks, Vladimir Medinsky, speaking on the same stated, "First of all, we will unilaterally hand over 6,000 frozen bodies of fallen Ukrainian soldiers and officers to the Ukrainian side. We have kept them. We have identified all whom we could, held DNA tests, and found out who they are...Next week, we will transfer these bodies to the Ukrainian side so that they can bury them in a human manner."
Medinsky further added that in case Ukraine has dead bodies of Russian soldiers, Moscow is ready to accept them.
"If they have some bodies, we will also receive them. So far, we do not know about that," he said, adding that not only the slain but the ill soldiers will also be swapped.
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"All gravely wounded and seriously ill soldiers will be exchanged for all. This is a humanitarian gesture on our part. The same approach - all for all - will be used to exchange young soldiers under the age of 25. The overall exchange quota will be at least 1,000 people from each side, possibly more," he said.
Adding to the above statement, the Russian aide, informed, "These exchanges will be conducted regularly as part of routine operations. Children are central to us...We've been hearing lately that 1.5 million Ukrainian children were abducted by the Russians. Then the number came down to 200,000, and now the official figure is 20,000. We have constantly asked to provide documentary evidence. We finally obtained a complete list...It includes 339 names. We will look into each case."
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