Military exchange: Ukraine returns bodies of 757 dead defenders
Photo: Bodies of 757 fallen defenders returned to Ukraine (facebook com 36obrmp)
Ukraine has returned the bodies of 757 fallen soldiers to its controlled territory. These are defenders who participated in battles in the Donetsk, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia regions, according to the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War.
As reported by the Coordination Headquarters, among the returned defenders brought back "on the shield" are:
- 451 defenders from the Donetsk direction;
- 71 from the Bakhmut direction;
- 51 from the Vuhledar direction;
- 13 from the Luhansk direction;
- 137 from the Zaporizhzhia direction.
Additionally, the bodies of 34 fallen Ukrainian soldiers were returned from morgues on Russian territory.
The fallen defenders were returned as a result of the joint efforts of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU), the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), the Office of the Ombudsman for Human Rights, the Secretariat of the Commissioner for Persons Missing Under Special Circumstances, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine (SES), and other agencies.
The International Committee of the Red Cross also contributed to the return of the fallen defenders.
The bodies of the fallen soldiers will be handed over to law enforcement agencies and forensic experts. This procedure is necessary to identify the deceased.
Prisoner exchanges
Let us recall that on January 15, Ukraine returned 24 military personnel and one civilian from Russian captivity. The freed Ukrainians were wounded, with one suffering from a severe form of tuberculosis.
Among the released prisoners were defenders of Mariupol and Azovstal and individuals from the Kharkiv, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions.
The previous exchange took place on December 30, 2024. At that time, Ukraine returned 189 citizens from Russian captivity.
