Ukraine takes over troops of 1,212 soldiers killed in war with Russia

Ukraine has taken back the troops of its 1,212 soldiers killed in the war with Russia, Kiev officials responsible for the exchange of prisoners said Wednesday.

“As a result of repatriation activities, the troops of 1,212 fallen defenders have returned to Ukraine”, the Co-ordination Committee for the exchange of prisoners on the telegram app, Reuters reported.

Photos from the ground also showed members of the International Committee of the Red Cross in an undeserved location, passing past several refrigerator trucks.

Some of the trucks were marked with signs of “On theShild”, a Ukrainian organisation that recovers and evacuates the bodies of fallen soldiers, Reuters reported, broadcast Periscopi

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on June 2nd that Russia wanted to hand over Ukraine over 6,000 troops, but that only about 15 per cent of them had been identified so far.

“We had a situation when they handed us bodies, and at the same time the bodies of the dead Russian soldiers”, Zelensky said at a press conference.

The troops of 1,212 soldiers will now be handed over to experts from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, law enforcement agencies and the Ukraine Ministry of Health, who will try to determine their identity as soon as possible, the co-ordination body said for the exchange of prisoners.

On Monday, Russia and Ukraine exchanged war prisoners under the age of 25. It was the first step in a series of planned exchanges that could become larger so far in the war Russia began in 2022.

Meanwhile, fighting continues. Russia said Monday that its forces had taken control of additional territory in Ukraine's eastern-center region, Dnepropetrovsk, while Kiev said Moscow had launched the biggest armed attack since the beginning of the war.