Amid peace talks, the Russian government on Tuesday returned the bodies of no fewer than 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers to Ukraine, five of whom died while in captivity.

Correspondingly, the Ukrainian government also returned the bodies of 19 Russian soldiers in exchange.

New Telegraph reports that the exchange of prisoners of war and repatriation of war dead have been one of the few areas of cooperation between the two countries since the war began.

It would be recalled that tens of thousands of soldiers have been killed on both sides since Russia invaded its neighbour in February 2022, though neither side regularly publishes data on their own casualties.

According to a Ukrainian government agency, the two countries have intensified these efforts in recent months during talks in Istanbul.

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According to the reports, law enforcement would begin the process of identifying the soldiers.

Kyiv initially said the two had agreed to “Exchange” the bodies of 6,000 Ukrainian soldiers for as many Russians, though Moscow has always presented the deal as a unilateral decision to repatriate Ukrainians.

“According to the Russian side, 1,000 bodies belonging to Ukrainian military personnel have been returned to Ukraine.

“Unfortunately, among those repatriated are the bodies of five Ukrainian servicemen who died in captivity, Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said in a statement on Telegram