On Friday, the remains of 502 Ukrainian soldiers who lost their lives in battles against Russian occupiers were returned to Ukraine.
This was reported by the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War on November 29.
The Russian Foreign Ministry announced readiness to exchange 630 prisoners of war: Lubinets' reactionOmbudsman Dmytro Lubinets responded to the Russian side's statement regarding the willingness to conduct a large-scale exchange of prisoners of war.It is noted that among the returned fallen defenders of Ukraine are: 397 fighters from the Donetsk direction; 24 warriors from the Luhansk direction; and 64 soldiers from the Zaporizhzhia direction. A total of 17 deceased were returned from morgues located in Russia.
"Together with expert institutions, the identities of the deceased will be established in the shortest possible time," the statement reads.
Recall that at the beginning of November, the bodies of 563 fallen defenders were returned to Ukraine. Most of the servicemen died in the Donetsk direction. Bodies were also recovered from morgues in Russia.
In October, the Ukrainian side managed to retrieve the remains of 501 defenders.