451 deceased were returned to Kyiv in the Donetsk direction, 71 in the Bakhmut direction, 51 in the Ugledar direction, 13 in the Luhansk direction, and 137 in the Zaporizhzhia direction. Another 34 bodies of military personnel were in Russian morgues before being returned to Ukraine. As reported by RBC-Ukraine, the exchange was made possible through the mediation of the International Committee of the Red Cross. The bodies of the fallen soldiers will be handed over to law enforcement agencies and forensic experts. The procedure is necessary to establish the identities of the deceased.
The Russian side did not officially comment on the exchange of bodies of the deceased. The telegram channel «Operational Reports» reported that the bodies of 49 deceased soldiers returned to Russia.
The last time Ukraine and Russia exchanged bodies of war participants was on December 20, 2024. At that time, 503 deceased were handed over to Kyiv, and 42 to Moscow — 42.