1,212 soldiers’ bodies repatriated in latest swap with Russia

Kiev says that the bodies of 1212 Ukrainian soldiers were returned from Russia, as part of the prisoner exchange agreement between the warring countries.

The chief negotiator in Moscow, Vladimir, said that Russia had 27 bodies.

The prisoner exchange deal was the only result of the peace talks in Turkey last week, as the two sides agreed to hand over up to 6000 bodies each, in addition to the patients of the war and the wounded, and those under the age of 25.

Medinsky announced that Russia will begin the exchange of “seriously injured prisoners” on Thursday.

The dead soldiers from different regions in Ukraine, including Donetsk, Karkiv, Khairison and Zaborisvia, said.

The center added that “it will determine the identities of the deceased as soon as possible.”

This is not the first time that the bodies have been returned in this conflict – thousands have already been exchanged in more than 70 of the return to the homeland.

This exchange follows several days of accusations from Moscow that Ukraine was failing to collect the bodies, which Medinski said was sitting in refrigerated trucks at a point of exchange since Saturday.

On Saturday, Madinensky said that Ukraine “was unexpectedly postponed” the prisoner’s barter. In response, Ukraine said that Russia was playing “dirty tricks” and manipulated the facts.

The first round of the stock exchanges occurred on Monday. There were emotional scenes as the families of the missing Ukrainian soldiers gathered near the border with Belarus to pressure the returning prisoners to get information about their loved ones.

Soldiers were exchanged on both sides on that dayBut Russia nor Ukraine has given an accurate number of people who were replaced.