Final Exchange: Ukraine Gets Over 1200 More Remains from Russia
Ukraine receives over a thousand deceased individuals from Russia
In a recent update, Ukraine received over a thousand more remains as the exchange with Russia reaches its end. The Ukrainian authorities announced on Monday, "An additional 1,245 bodies have been transported back to Ukraine." This is the final step in the agreements made during the Istanbul talks.
At the beginning of this month, representatives from both Ukraine and Russia met in Turkey to discuss a prisoner of war and war victim exchange. Last week, Russia handed off several thousand remains to Ukraine, which, when combined with previous deliveries, brings the total number of Ukrainian remains received to over 6,000.
The exchange is the culmination of negotiations that took place in Istanbul earlier this month. During these discussions, Russia denied demands for an unconditional ceasefire and insisted that Ukraine relinquish significant chunks of its territory and abandon its NATO membership aspirations.
There have been concerns about the mixing of remains during previous exchanges, with some reports suggesting Russia intentionally mixed Ukrainian and Russian bodies to inflate the number of returns or due to negligence. Despite this, Ukraine continues to push for the return of its prisoners of war. Russian Presidential Aide Vladimir Medinsky proposed swapping kidnapped Ukrainian children for Russian POWs, a proposal Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky categorically rejected as "contravening international law." It remains to be seen if this exchange will pave the way for further negotiations.
Sources:- ntv.de- AFP
Enrichment Data:- Russia also claimed to have received 78 bodies from Ukraine during the same period, bringing their total number of returned bodies to 6,060, according to Russian sources.- It's important to note that there have been allegations that some remains were mixed during previous exchanges, potentially for inflating the number of bodies returned or due to negligence.- Additionally, Russia has indicated willingness to return an additional 2,239 remains.- The prisoner exchange discussions are ongoing, with Ukraine still pressing for the return of its POWs.
- The community policy regarding the exchange of prisoner remains and general-news has been extensively discussed following the recent exchange between Ukraine and Russia, with concerns over the mixing of remains being a prominent issue.
- In accordance with the ongoing politics surrounding the Ukraine-Russia conflict, both employment policies of the countries have been affected, as both nations strive to address the high numbers of civilian casualties and returning war victims.
