MOSCOW: Russia has handed over the remains of 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers to Kyiv, a Moscow official said Thursday, with Ukraine returning the bodies of 35 Russians in exchange.
The two sides regularly exchange the remains of troops killed in combat, one of the few areas of cooperation.
“The bodies of 1,000 dead Ukrainian soldiers were given to Ukraine. Russia was given the bodies of 35 dead Russian fighters,” Moscow’s top negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said on social media.
He posted a photo showing men in white overalls and blue gloves lifting a white body bag from the back of a refrigerated truck.
Hundreds of thousands of soldiers have been killed in the four-year war, triggered when Moscow launched its full-scale offensive against Ukraine in February 2022.
Negotiators from both countries were in Geneva on Thursday for separate talks with US officials, part of a fraught negotiation process being pushed by President Donald Trump in a bid to end the fighting.
Russia, Ukraine exchange bodies of killed soldiers
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Russia, Ukraine exchange bodies of killed soldiers
- Hundreds of thousands of soldiers have been killed in the four-year war
Putin and Trump discuss Iran and Ukraine wars: Kremlin
- Putin and Trump held a one-hour call in their first talks since December
MOSCOW: Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump on Monday discussed the Iran war and Ukraine conflict during a “frank and constructive” telephone call, the Kremlin said.
Putin and Trump held a one-hour call in their first talks since December and Washington sought the discussion, Putin’s diplomatic adviser Yuri Ushakov was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.
“The accent was placed on the situation surrounding the conflict with Iran and the bilateral negotiations underway with the representatives of the United States on settling the Ukrainian question,” Ushakov said.
Ushakov said Putin called for a “quick political and diplomatic settlement” to the US-Israeli war against Iran, which has been a key ally for Russia.
The Russian leader also gave Trump “a description of the current situation on the line of contact where Russian troops are progressing with a lot of success,” he added, referring to the Ukraine war.
Putin “positively evaluated the mediation efforts undertaken” by Trump in the Ukraine conflict, the adviser said. A series of talks have been held between Russian and US officials and between Russian, US and Ukrainian officials, but with no breakthrough in efforts to reach a ceasefire.
Ushakov said Washington had wanted to “discuss a series of extremely important questions linked to the current international situation.”
“The conversation was serious and constructive,” he added.
Trump and Putin held a summit in Alaska in August last year.
