Ukraine receives bodies of 757 troops killed fighting Russia

Kyiv said on Friday it had received the bodies of hundreds of Ukrainian troops killed in battle with Russian forces, in one of the largest repatriations since Russia invaded.

The exchange of prisoners and return of their remains is one of the few areas of cooperation between Moscow and Kyiv since the Kremlin mobilised its army in Ukraine in February 2022.

The repatriation announced by the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, a Ukrainian state agency, is the largest in months and underscores the high cost and intensity of fighting ahead of the war’s three-year anniversary.

“The bodies of 757 fallen defenders were returned to Ukraine,” the Coordination Headquarters said on social media.

It specified that 451 of the bodies were returned from the “Donetsk direction”, probably a reference to the battle for the mining and transport hub of Pokrovsk.

The city that once had around 60,000 residents has been devastated by months of Russian bombardments and is the Kremlin’s top military priority at the moment.