In the near future, Ukrainian law enforcement agencies and Ministry of Internal Affairs experts will begin the identification of the transferred remains to confirm or refute the information provided by the Russian side.
The Russian state news agency TASS also confirmed the fact of transferring 1,000 bodies to Ukraine and added that in response, Russia received the remains of 30 Russian soldiers. This information was announced by State Duma deputy Shamsail Saraliyev, who is a representative of the parliamentary coordination group on issues of the war in Ukraine.
The agreements reached in June between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul concerned the exchange of prisoners and the bodies of the deceased. The last exchange of remains took place on October 23, when Ukraine received the bodies of 1,000 individuals, and Russia received 31. Earlier, on September 18, an exchange occurred in which Russia also returned 1,000 bodies, while Ukraine returned 24.
After the first exchange, which took place back in June, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that 20 of the transferred bodies turned out to be soldiers fighting on the side of Russia. However, these accusations were rejected in Russia.
The exchanges also involve prisoners of war. In early October, the sides exchanged 185 captured military personnel each, as well as conducted a civilian exchange – 20 for 20. The previous exchange of prisoners of war took place on August 24, when each side returned 146 of its servicemen, as well as eight residents of the Kursk region who had been in Sumy since February 2025.
