Moscow, June 19: Russia is prepared to hand over the bodies of an additional 3,000 fallen Ukrainian soldiers, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.
“We have returned the bodies of 6,000 fallen Ukrainian soldiers. We are ready to hand over nearly 3,000 more,” he said during a meeting with the heads of leading international news agencies in St. Petersburg.
“These are, I repeat, sad and tragic figures,” Putin said.
According to Putin, the peace talks in Istanbul make sense and have a positive outcome, Xinhua news agency reported.
“We have already agreed on the exchange of 1,200 prisoners. We have released 500 so far — received back 400, and I believe we will get everyone we are supposed to receive. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to talk about this. We have returned more than 6,000 bodies of fallen Ukrainian servicemen, while receiving only 57 in return. We are now ready to hand over another 3,000. This is still a positive result of the talks in Istanbul,” the Russian leader said.
The second round of peace talks between Ukraine and Russia took place in Istanbul on June 2.
During the meeting, the delegations discussed the possibility of a ceasefire. They also talked about preparations for a new exchange of prisoners of war.
In particular, the parties agreed on a new exchange of certain categories of prisoners, as well as a mutual exchange of bodies of fallen soldiers on the front lines based on a 6,000-for-6,000 formula.
The first stage of the prisoner exchange took place on June 9. The second and third rounds followed on June 11 and 13.
On June 14, the parties carried out the fourth prisoner exchange.
As part of these exchanges, the bodies of 3,600 fallen soldiers have been returned to Ukraine.
Earlier on June 13, Russian Presidential Aide Vladimir Medinsky, who heads the country’s delegation to talks with Ukraine, said that Moscow had handed the bodies of 1,212 Ukrainian service members over to Kyiv and received the bodies of 27 Russian soldiers.
Russia and Ukraine reached a humanitarian agreement during talks in Istanbul on June 2, which particularly provides for an exchange of wounded and seriously ill prisoners of war and soldiers under the age of 25, as well as for the transfer of the bodies of over 6,000 Ukrainian troops to Kyiv. On June 7, Ukraine suddenly moved to postpone accepting the bodies and exchanging prisoners, Medinsky said.
The first group of Russian service members under the age of 25 returned to Russia on June 9.
An aircraft carrying the second group of troops arrived in Russia on June 10. (IANS)
