THE Ukraine government announced the receipt of 1,000 bodies of fallen soldiers from Russia on Thursday, September 18.
Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War made the announcement on Telegram.
“Repatriation measures took place today. 1,000 bodies, which according to the Russian side belong to Ukrainian servicemen, have been returned to Ukraine,” it said.
Another Ukrainian agency said twenty-four Russian soldiers’ bodies were returned in exchange, noting it handled information on Russian prisoners of war and missing people.
Since Russia’s 2022 invasion, tens of thousands of soldiers have died on both sides, though neither regularly released casualty figures.
Amid the war, exchanging prisoners of war and repatriating soldiers’ bodies are among the few areas of cooperation between the two nations.
The ICIR reported that despite the United State diplomatic efforts and three rounds of direct talks between Kyiv and Moscow, little progress has been made toward ending the conflict.
The Kremlin announced last week that peace talks with Ukraine were on ‘pause’.
Meanwhile, during his final day in the United Kingdom, President Donald Trump said Russian leader Vladimir Putin had “really let me down” while holding wide-ranging talks with Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
A day after King Charles III hosted Trump with royal pageantry at Windsor Castle, the US president visited Starmer’s Chequers residence for talks on contentious issues, including the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.
Starmer has cast himself as a mediator between Trump and European allies, especially on the war in Ukraine, aiming to secure stronger US commitments to Kyiv.
His renewed calls on Thursday for greater international pressure on Putin seem to be resonating with Trump, who criticised the Russian leader for prolonging the war despite his attempts to end it.
At a press conference after the talks, Trump said he had expected the Ukraine war to be the easiest to end “because of my relationship with President Putin, but he’s let me down. He’s really let me down.”
He called on European countries to halt Russian oil purchases, arguing that “if the price of oil comes down, Putin’s going to drop out of that war.”
Nanji is an investigative journalist with the ICIR. She has years of experience in reporting and broadcasting human angle stories, gender inequalities, minority stories, and human rights issues. She has documented sexual war crimes in armed conflict, sex for grades in Nigerian Universities, harmful traditional practices and human trafficking.