Moscow and Kiev have exchanged the remains of dozens of fallen servicemen, Russian MP Shamsail Saraliev has told the RBK media outlet. The lawmaker is a member of a parliamentary commission on the Russian military campaign against Ukraine.
According to Saraliev, the Russian Defense Ministry returned 250 bodies to Ukraine and received the remains of 38 soldiers in exchange. The swap included servicemen killed in various regions, including the Lugansk People’s Republic in Russia’s Donbass and Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkov Region, RBK reported.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Reintegration confirmed the exchange in a Telegram post. Kiev received the bodies of 250 fallen Ukrainian soldiers, the ministry said, without providing information on the number of Russian troops. The operation involved the Ukrainian military as well as the domestic security service, the SBU, and was coordinated with the International Committee of the Red Cross, it added.
Similar swaps have been carried out on an almost monthly basis. In May, Russia handed over 212 bodies to Ukraine in exchange for the remains of 45 troops. In June, Kiev received the bodies of 250 soldiers, while 32 were returned to Russia.
The latest swap took place one day after the Russian Defense Ministry updated its estimate of Kiev’s losses in the conflict, claiming that the Ukrainian military lost more than 60,000 soldiers in July alone.
The ministry also said on Friday that Kiev had lost more than 13,500 troops in just one week between July 26 and August 2.
In June, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed Ukraine’s losses were five times higher than Moscow’s. The Ukrainian military was losing some 50,000 personnel a month, he said at that time.
Ukraine’s top military commander, Colonel General Aleksandr Syrsky, declined to give casualty figures in an interview with The Guardian in late July. He described the level of losses as a “sensitive” topic that could be exploited by Moscow.