Russia returns bodies of 1,212 soldiers to Ukraine amid stalled Istanbul talks to end war
Ukraine announced on Wednesday that Russia has returned the bodies of 1,212 soldiers who lost their lives fighting Moscow's invasion, marking a significant step in humanitarian cooperation between the two nations. This repatriation was part of an agreement reached during recent peace negotiations held in Istanbul last week, where both sides also agreed on prisoner exchanges.
The Ukrainian government confirmed that the remains include soldiers who died in key conflict zones such as Kharkiv, Lugansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson, as well as casualties from Ukraine's counteroffensive in Russia's Kursk region.
Ukrainian forensic experts are now working swiftly to identify the deceased.
Despite this progress, the two rounds of talks in Istanbul have failed to produce a breakthrough in ending the war, with prisoner swaps and the return of fallen soldiers' bodies remaining the only concrete outcomes.
Tensions persist, with Moscow accusing Kyiv of delaying the collection of bodies, which Russia claimed had been held in refrigerated trucks near the border since Saturday.
Russia had earlier pledged to unilaterally return the remains of 6,000 Ukrainian soldiers, while Kyiv maintained that the process should be part of a mutual exchange.
Both sides have begun a large-scale prisoner swap, with the initial phases completed earlier this week.
Peace remains elusive as Russia continues to reject calls for an unconditional ceasefire, demanding that Ukraine cede significant territory and abandon its aspirations to join NATO.
Russian forces launched a new drone assault across Ukraine overnight on Wednesday, killing three people and wounding 64 others, Ukrainian officials said.
One of the hardest-hit areas was the city of Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine, where 17 attack drones struck two residential districts, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said. Emergency crews, municipal workers and volunteers worked through the night to extinguish fires, rescue residents from burning homes, and restore gas, electricity and water services.
'Those are ordinary sites of peaceful life — those that should never be targeted,' Terekhov wrote on Telegram.
Three people were confirmed killed, according to Kharkiv regional head Oleh Syniehubov. In a statement, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that 64 people had been wounded and reiterated his calls for greater international pressure on Moscow.
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