Approximately 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been replaced with the bodies of 19 Russian soldiers.
According to a Kremlin aide, Russia and Ukraine exchanged more corpses from their war as part of the agreement reached in the second round of peace talks in Turkiye last month.
“At the end of the agreement reached in Istanbul, another 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been handed over to Ukraine today,” Vladimir Medinsky, a delegation to the peace talks of Russia, told Telegram on Thursday, adding that Ukraine had handed over 19 Slain Russian soldiers.
The exchange of captured soldiers and the repatriation of bodies took place regularly, on the equivalent of some of the only successful diplomacy between the two countries in wars over three years, since the brief renewal of peace negotiations in Istanbul in May.
Medinsky posted a photo on Thursday. People in white medical suits are lifting white body bags from behind a refrigerated truck.
Russia is planning to return the bodies of 3,000 Ukrainian soldiers, and the exchange marked the beginning of the process, Russian RIA news agency reported.
At a direct meeting in Istanbul on June 2, Russia and Ukraine pledged to exchange at least 1,000 soldiers for each.
Negotiators on both sides also agreed to trade all seriously injured soldiers with all captured fighters under the age of 25.
But despite repeated pressure from President Donald Trump for the Gulf between Moscow and Kiev to agree to a ceasefire, future talks to discuss the path to end the war have stagnated.
In consultations, Russia outlined a list of hard-line requests, including Ukraine giving away more territory and refusing to all forms of Western military assistance.
Kiev dismisses them as an unacceptable ultimate, and questioning the points of further negotiations if Moscow does not want to make concessions.
In further diplomatic development, a reunification of another round of Russian and Ukrainian families and minors took place on Thursday in mediation in Qatar at the Moscow Embassy. Eleven children reunite with their Ukrainian family, Russian family and three families. So far, more than 100 children have reunited with their families since Qatar began to promote the process.
Ukraine said Russia took 20,000 children during the war and gave Moscow a list of hundreds.
Russian President Vladimir Putin faces charges of war crimes in front of the International Criminal Court in The Hague on suspicion of “illegal deportation and relocation of children.”
Before the latest prisoner exchange, Russian air attacks at shopping centres and markets in Dubropyria in eastern Ukraine killed at least two people and injured 22 people, causing widespread damage on Wednesday, Gov. Vadym Filashkin said. Firashkin said the building was struck by a 500kg (1,100lb) bomb.
In the latest overnight attack, Russia launched 400 Sharp and Decoy drones and one ballistic missile, the Ukrainian Air Force said. The strike targeted the northeastern cities of Harkiv, the central city of Cliviy Lee, Vinnizzia in the west and Odesa in the south.
The Russian Ministry of Defense has announced that its forces have captured Popivyar in the eastern region of Donetsk, Degutianu in Kharkiv in the northeastern region, and degtiarne villages in Kamianke in Zaporidia to the south.