Ukraine recovers bodies of 757 fallen defenders

This was reported by the Coordination Headquarters for Handling Prisoners of War.  

Among the returned fallen defenders:  

• 451 from the Donetsk direction;  
• 71 from the Bakhmut direction;  
• 51 from the Vuhledar direction;  
• 13 from the Luhansk direction;  
• 137 from the Zaporizhzhia direction;  
• 34 bodies were returned from morgues located on Russian territory.

The fallen defenders were returned as a result of joint efforts by employees of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, the Central Directorate of Civil-Military Cooperation under the General Staff, the Joint Center of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Office of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, the Secretariat of the Commissioner for Missing Persons under Special Circumstances, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine (SES), and other structures within Ukraine's Security and Defense Sector.  

The Headquarters expressed gratitude to the International Committee of the Red Cross for its assistance.  

Special thanks were also extended to the personnel of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, who transport the repatriated fallen heroes to designated state specialized institutions, facilitate their transfer to law enforcement representatives in the Ministry of Internal Affairs system, and to forensic medical experts in the Ministry of Health system.

Investigators from law enforcement agencies, in cooperation with expert institutions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, will identify the deceased in the shortest possible time, the Headquarters assured.

• At least 64 violations of physical and mental health rights were reported in Russian-occupied Crimea in 2024, with 56 cases targeting Crimean Tatars.