Ukraine and Russia have completed the exchange of corpses – the final stage of the deal to bring down the fallen soldiers.
Kyiv said Moscow handed over 1,245 people on Monday, bringing the total to 6,057 in the past few days. It said that it is now checking whether all the bodies actually belong to Ukrainian soldiers.
Russia has set the total number of bodies transferred to Ukraine at 6,060. He also said 78 Russian soldiers had been deported.
Ukrainian Home Minister Ihol Klimenko accused Russia of “deliberately complicated” the process of identifying. “The body is very severed, [the same] My body comes in a variety of bags,” he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The latest exchange took place on Monday at a private location. The body inside the white bag was brought in by a truck in the fridge.
Members of the Red Cross monitored the process.
In a statement, the Ukrainian government agency coordinating repatriation said “a separate 1,245 people have been returned to Ukraine.”
It said the identification process and “all necessary tests” will be carried out by Ukrainian law enforcement experts.
Meanwhile, the Russian Ministry of Defense said in a statement that 1,248 Ukrainian soldiers had been handed over to Kiev.
The numbers were questioned by Klemenko. Klimenko said that Ukraine had “received the remains of Russian soldiers mixed with Ukrainian soldiers” during their previous exchange.
In that statement, the Russian Defense Ministry also said it received the 51 bodies that killed 51 Russian soldiers on Monday, bringing the total to 78.
The ministry added that it is ready to hand over another 2,239 groups of Ukrainian soldiers.
The overall disparity between the two sides may be due to the fact that Russia has recently been able to recover many of the soldiers killed in the battle, as it has made territorial profits.
The trust between the two sides is also very low regarding the death toll.
The Red Cross refused to say how many bodies were handed over on each side.
“It’s really up to them to get the details and decide where this will happen, when and which people are part of the process,” ICRC spokesman Pat Griffith told the BBC.
Earlier this month, a peace negotiation between Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul, Turkey, agreed to a contract to repatriate the bodies and exchange prisoners of war.
