Russia, Ukraine jointly return dead soldiers’ bodies

People in the city of Lysychansk, near a front line between Russia and Ukraine, are gathered at a station waiting for evacuation on June 7 – Photo: REUTERS

“50 fallen heroes returned”, Ministry of Reunification Ukraine confirmed in a statement dated June 8. This body was created to manage matters related to the territories of Ukraine but controlled by Russia.

The exchange took place at a front line near the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, according to Reuters news agency.

According to Ukrainian authorities, 50 bodies of soldiers were returned this time, including 37 from the unit that was entrenched at the Azovstal factory in the city of Mariupol. The Russian side also received the bodies of 50 soldiers returned by Ukraine.

The city of Mariupol is currently under Russian control after months of fierce siege.

This is the second time Russia and Ukraine have returned their fallen soldiers less than a week after the first handover on June 4. According to the Ministry of Reunification of Ukraine, 160 bodies of Ukrainian soldiers were returned by Russia in the first round.

Thus, up to now, the two sides have jointly returned a total of 210 dead soldiers’ bodies. According to Reuters, most of the bodies that Ukraine received were soldiers who died fighting in the Azovstal factory.

Both Russia and Ukraine announced the loss of each other’s lives in the direction of the opponent’s heavier damage. There is no independent and reliable statistics on the extent of the loss of life on both sides.

Russia launched a “special military operation” at the end of February 2022 and sent troops into Ukraine in the name of disarming the army, ending acts against civilians in eastern Ukraine who are culturally close to Russia.

The hostilities are currently in the second phase after Russia, facing strong resistance from Ukraine, was forced to withdraw from the north of the country at the end of March. Moscow’s goal in the second phase focuses on the Donbass region consisting of two provinces. Donetsk and Luhansk.

Lugansk Governor Serhiy Gaidai said Ukrainian forces had withdrawn to the outskirts of the industrial city of Severodonetsk on June 8 after facing an onslaught from Russia. Severodonetsk is the administrative capital of Ukraine after the city of Lugansk fell to pro-Russian forces in 2014.

More than 1,000 surrendered Ukrainian soldiers were brought back to Russia

TTO – On June 7, TASS news agency reported that more than 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers who surrendered in the city of Mariupol were transferred to Russia for investigation, while the Ukrainian side said it had received back 210 soldiers’ bodies from Russia. .