Russia has handed over the remains of 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers killed in action, Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War announced on Thursday.
According to the agency, the handover took place as part of ongoing repatriation efforts, one of the few areas where Moscow and Kyiv continue to cooperate despite more than three years of full-scale war.
“Repatriation measures took place today. One thousand bodies, which according to the Russian side belong to Ukrainian servicemen, were returned to Ukraine,” the agency said in a statement on social media.
The return marks another grim exchange between the two warring nations.
In recent months, Ukraine has confirmed similar repatriations in July, August, and September, each involving around 1,000 fallen soldiers, underscoring the heavy toll of the prolonged conflict.
Ukraine has previously returned the remains of Russian soldiers to Moscow during earlier exchanges, both sides relying on such gestures to facilitate the identification and burial of their dead.
The Coordination Headquarters said law enforcement authorities would begin the process of identifying the repatriated remains and expressed gratitude to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for its role in facilitating the process.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, tens of thousands of soldiers have been killed on both sides, though neither country regularly discloses official casualty figures.
In February this year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told U.S. media that Ukraine had lost over 46,000 soldiers, while “tens of thousands” remained missing in action.
Meanwhile, independent monitoring by the BBC and Mediazona suggests that more than 135,000 Russian troops have been killed during the 3½-year war, with analysts warning the true number may be significantly higher.
