Russia and Ukraine have exchanged the remains of 275 soldiers killed during the ongoing war, officials and Belarusian state media reported Thursday.
The exchange was carried out at the Novaya Guta border crossing in Belarus, according to Shamsail Saraliyev, a Russian State Duma lawmaker with the ruling United Russia party and a member of a parliamentary group focused on the conflict.
Russia handed over 252 bodies to Ukraine, while Ukrainian authorities returned the remains of 23 Russian soldiers.
“Belarus continues its humanitarian mission,” Belarusian state news agency Belta reported, publishing photographs from the handover.
Ukraine’s military confirmed the exchange, saying its search teams continued recovery operations despite the risks posed by drone attacks, remote mines and artillery fire.
Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said law enforcement agencies would begin the process of identifying the 252 bodies returned to the country. The International Committee of the Red Cross also assisted with the exchange, the Ukrainian authorities said.
The repatriation of fallen soldiers and prisoner exchanges remain among the few avenues of direct communication between Moscow and Kyiv since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The latest exchange follows an earlier handover on August 13, when Russia received the remains of 24 soldiers and Ukraine received 261 bodies.
