Ukraine announced on Monday, June 16, having received 1,245 remains of people killed during the war between the two countries, which brought more than 6,000 the number of bodies of alleged Ukrainians delivered to kyiv for a week. This is the last stage of an agreement concluded among the belligerents in Istanbul at the beginning of the month.
“1,245 additional bodies to Ukraine have been returned, which, according to the Russian part, are Ukrainian citizens, including military personnel,” wrote the structure of the government in charge of the archive.
“Ukraine has received 6,057 body” from the beginning of exchanges last week, the Ukraine Coordination Center continues for prisoners of war, which is cautious and expects an identification of the bodies.
Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said the bodies returning to Kyiv were in “an extremely mutilated state.” Ukraine also received, during recent exchanges, “Corps of Russian soldiers mixed with those of the Ukrainians,” insured, in Telegram, Igor Klymenko.
“We accelerate the identification process as much as possible. But with every great repatriation, it becomes increasingly difficult to do so, and perhaps that is Russia’s goal,” he accused the Ukrainian minister.
78 remains delivered to Russia
Russia, on the other hand, said that it has “filled” the “promises” made during the conversations in Istanbul on June 2. In total, she claims to have returned to kyiv 6,060 bodies, according to Russian chief negotiator Vladimir Medinski, a number that disseminates what Kyiv gave.
In return, Moscow received 78 remains from kyiv, Vladimir Medinski added, claiming that the exchange of prisoners “continues.” The Russian Defense Minister said he was ready “to put 2,239 additional bodies of soldiers who fell into the battle.”
Thousands of children in the heart of negotiations
On the other hand, visiting Monday in Vienna, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, accused Russia of having proposed kyiv to exchange Russian prisoners of war for Ukrainian children. “It is crazy and, in addition to the Russians, they proposed it: we give them soldiers, we give ourselves children. It is beyond all understanding and international law, but it is their mental state,” he deplored.
Ukraine requests the return of several thousand children who, according to the Ukrainian authorities, were “deported” by Moscow in Russia or in the occupied area, accusations rejected by the Kremlin.
Ukraine has faced a Russian invasion for more than three years whose evaluation is at least tens of thousands of deaths on both sides, civil and military combined, the authorities of the two countries that did not publish a recent review of wounded or killed soldiers in the front. The repatriation of bodies, in particular of the soldiers, and the exchanges of prisoners of war are the rare areas in which kyiv and Moscow cooperate.
Source: BFM TV
