Russia and Ukraine exchange bodies of 590 dead soldiers

Russia and Ukraine have exchanged the bodies of 590 dead servicemen, Shamsail Saraliev, a deputy in Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, told state-affiliated business news outlet RBC on Friday.

Saraliev, a representative of the parliamentary coordination group for what Russia calls its “special military operation”, said that Ukraine had received the bodies of 501 servicemen, while Russia had received 89 in return.

The Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, a Ukrainian government body, said that among those returned were 382 bodies of those who had died defending Avdiivka, a town in eastern Ukraine captured by Russian forces in February. The remaining bodies were recovered from other Ukrainian cities captured by Russian forces in eastern Ukraine, including Bakhmut, Maryinka and Vuhledar.

One body was also returned from a Russian morgue, the headquarters said, adding that the bodies would be taken to Ukrainian morgues to be identified, after which they would be handed over to their relatives for burial.

The Russian Defence Ministry is yet to comment on the exchange.

Russia and Ukraine have regularly exchanged the bodies of their dead soldiers since 2022, with the International Committee of the Red Cross helping to facilitate the exchanges.