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| The peace talks have not produced any results, but prisoners and bodies have been exchanged(Image: Medinski Instagram Post) |
Russia says it has handed over the remains of 1,000 soldiers to Ukraine and has received the bodies of 35 Russian soldiers in return.
It comes as the chief negotiator of Ukraine meets with the envoys of US President Donald Trump in Geneva to talk about economic plans for rebuilding Ukraine after the war. Additionally, preparations were being made for a trilateral meeting with the Russian side as well as a third round of talks led by the US to bring an end to the conflict, which has now entered its fifth year. According to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, Russia fired 420 drones and 39 missiles in six different regions of the country just hours before the Geneva talks, causing dozens of injuries.
Vladimir Medinsky, a top aide of Russian President Vladimir Putin, announced the exchange of bodies in a short announcement on Telegram. He did not provide any specifics, but he did include an image of bodies being removed from a truck. Hours later, Ukraine said it had received 1,000 bodies which, "according to prior information from the Russian side, may belong to Ukrainian defenders".
The two sides have exchanged thousands of soldiers' bodies over the course of the conflict that began with Putin's decision to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022.
The exchange is based on a deal that the two sides reached during negotiations in June 2025 in Istanbul. Both Moscow and Kyiv agreed to return the remains of up to 6,000 soldiers, as well as all prisoners of war who were ill or severely wounded and those under the age of 25. Moscow and Kyiv frequently release estimates of the losses of the other side, but they do not specify their own. Zelensky recently said that 55,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed on the battlefield. Western observers say that this number is too low because it doesn't take into account the missing soldiers. The BBC has also confirmed the identities of nearly 186,000 people who were killed fighting for Russia's side in Ukraine from public sources. Since many deaths on the battlefield are not recorded, it is generally agreed that the actual death toll is much higher. Even though there are estimates that more Russians are dying each day, Moscow has given Ukraine more bodies than it has received. No-one has explained the discrepancy, even though Russia has previously accused Ukraine of not abiding by the Istanbul agreement, and Ukraine has alleged Russian body returns were irregular and sometimes included Russians' remains - a charge Moscow has rejected.
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Given that Russia's troops have been on the offensive for the majority of the conflict and are therefore better equipped to retrieve bodies from the battlefield, one possible explanation is that Russia captures more Ukrainian dead.
In a telephone conversation with Trump on the eve of the Geneva talks, President Zelensky predicted that the Geneva talks would lead to trilateral negotiations at the beginning of March, providing "an opportunity to move talks to the leaders' level." Zelensky stated, "This is the only way to resolve all the complex and sensitive issues and finally end the war," adding, "President Trump supports this sequence of steps." Putin, for his part, has refused to meet Zelensky, describing him as illegitimate - an argument centring on the fact that no presidential election has been held in Ukraine, despite the expiry of Zelensky's term in March 2024.
However, elections cannot be held under martial law in Ukraine because of Putin's invasion of his neighbor.
Source: BBC
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