Kremlin signals willingness to discuss further exchange of bodies with Ukraine

Russian dictator Vladimir Putin stated this, TASS reports.

According to him, the agreement on the exchange of prisoners and the bodies of fallen soldiers is a positive result of the negotiations in Istanbul.

“I think everything will be fair. We will receive everyone we are supposed to receive. Unfortunately, it is sad and difficult to talk about this. We have handed over 6,000 bodies of deceased Ukrainian servicemen. We are ready to return about 3,000 more. These, I repeat, are sad, tragic numbers. However, this is a matter of a humanitarian nature. Still, it is a positive result of the negotiations in Istanbul,” Putin said.

In turn, his spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on June 19 that Russia plans to raise the issue of further exchange of bodies during the next round of negotiations.

“This needs to be coordinated... This is all a subject for discussion at the next round,” TASS quotes Peskov as saying.

Earlier, Putin stated he was ready to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the final stage of negotiations.

• On June 16, another exchange took place, as a result of which 1,245 more bodies were returned to Ukraine. 

• At that time, it also became known that Russia, along with the bodies of fallen Ukrainian defenders, handed over the bodies of its soldiers to Ukraine.

• On June 18, the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ihor Klymenko, confirmed that Ukraine had received over 6,000 bodies, but among them are also the bodies of Russian soldiers. It may take up to 14 months to identify the bodies received during repatriations. After that, Ukraine will return the bodies of Russians to Russia for burial.