Ukraine and Russia swap bodies of almost 300 soldiers in “one of the biggest” exchanges of its kind

Ukraine said Friday it had received the bodies of 250 killed soldiers in one of the largest exchanges of remains since Russia invaded in February 2022.

The two sides regularly exchange soldiers’ bodies as well as captured prisoners of war in rare diplomatic dealmaking between Moscow and Kyiv.

“As a result of repatriation operations, the bodies of 250 fallen Ukrainian defenders were returned to Ukraine,” Kyiv’s Coordination Centre for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said in a statement.

“This is one of the biggest” operations of its kind, spokesman Petro Yatsenko told AFP.

Kyiv said it handed over the remains of 38 Russian soldiers in the deal, which was mediated by International Red Cross. 

DNA analysis will be used to identify the bodies before releasing them into the custody of the families for funeral ceremonies and burials.

Some of those returned were of Ukrainian soldiers that had fought in the southern port city of Mariupol, fully captured in May 2022 by Russian forces after they had almost completely flattened it in one of the most intense aerial bombardments of the war.

In January, Russia and Ukraine exchanged hundreds of prisoners of war, exactly a week after Moscow accused Ukraine of shooting down a military transport plane carrying dozens of captured Ukrainian soldiers. 

George Barros, of the Institute for the Study of War, recently told CBS News that Russia is using new tactics — including soldiers on motorcycles — to seize 430 square miles of territory over the past nine months.

But the price Russia is paying to make these advances is very high. According to Barros, the Russians are losing between 25,000 to 30,000 troops per month. By some estimates, Russia has suffered a staggering half-million killed or wounded since the invasion began in February 2022.