KYIV, Ukraine, Aug 2, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Ukraine said Friday it had received
the bodies of 250 killed soldiers in one of the largest exchanges of remains
since Russia invaded in February 2022.

The two sides regularly exchange soldiers' bodies as well as captured
prisoners of war in rare diplomatic dealmaking between Moscow and Kyiv.

"As a result of repatriation operations, the bodies of 250 fallen Ukrainian
defenders were returned to Ukraine," Kyiv's Coordination Centre for the
Treatment of Prisoners of War said in a statement.

"This is one of the biggest" operations of its kind, Centre Spokesman Petro
Yatsenko told AFP.

Kyiv said it handed over the remains of 38 Russian soldiers in the deal,
which was mediated by International Red Cross.

DNA analysis will be used to identify the bodies before releasing them into
the custody of the families for funeral ceremonies and burials.

Some of those returned were of Ukrainian soldiers that had fought in the
southern port city of Mariupol, fully captured in May 2022 by Russian forces
after they had almost completely flattened it in one of the most intense
aerial bombardments of the war.