Russia has returned the our bodies of 1,200 Ukrainian soldiers to Kyiv, marking one of many largest repatriations of stays because the conflict started greater than three years in the past.
The return on Friday was made following an settlement reached throughout peace talks in Istanbul final month.
Nonetheless, Moscow has claimed this newest change was one-sided, claiming that Ukraine has didn’t return the our bodies of its fallen troopers.
“As we speak, Russia handed over 1,200 our bodies of deceased troopers of the Ukrainian armed forces to Ukraine. Not a single one was handed over to us,” an unnamed supply instructed Russia’s state-run TASS information company.
Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky additionally claimed that Ukraine all of a sudden postponed the handover of stays and prisoner exchanges on June 7, with out providing a public rationalization.
Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Therapy of Prisoners of Warfare mentioned in an announcement on Friday that forensic consultants will now work to establish the stays they obtained, including that the our bodies have been believed to be these of Ukrainian navy personnel.
Earlier this week, Russia returned one other 1,212 our bodies and obtained simply 27 our bodies of its personal troops in return.
Regardless of tensions, either side have agreed in precept to change as much as 6,000 our bodies and prioritise the discharge of sick and severely wounded prisoners of conflict, in addition to these below the age of 25.
EU safety for Ukrainian refugees
In the meantime, because the conflict continues between Russia and Ukraine, the European Union has prolonged its momentary safety scheme for Ukrainian refugees by one other yr, permitting them to stay within the bloc till March 2027.
The EU’s transfer, introduced on Friday, comes amid ongoing air raids and strikes throughout Ukraine, which have displaced hundreds of thousands because the begin of Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
Greater than 4.3 million Ukrainians are presently registered below the scheme, with Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic internet hosting the most important refugee populations.
“Whereas Russia continues to terrorise Ukrainian civilians with indiscriminate air strikes, the EU continues to point out its solidarity,” mentioned Tomasz Siemoniak, Poland’s inside minister.
“We are going to proceed to supply safety for hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees for an additional yr.”
Preventing continues
Heavy preventing continued throughout the entrance line on Friday, with new casualties reported in each Ukraine and Russia.
In Russia’s Belgorod area, a two-year-old boy was killed and two adults, together with his grandmother, have been wounded in what officers mentioned was a Ukrainian drone strike in a single day, in response to Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence claimed it had intercepted 260 Ukrainian drones over the previous 24 hours, whereas over the previous week, Moscow says its air defences downed a Neptune long-range missile, 18 JDAM guided bombs, 9 US-made HIMARS rockets, and 1,582 fixed-wing drones from Ukraine.
In Zaporizhzhia, Ukrainian Governor Ivan Fedorov reported one particular person killed and three injured in Russian shelling, whereas in Donetsk, Ukrainian Governor Vadym Filashkin mentioned two civilians have been killed and 5 injured throughout the area.
It comes after the Ukrainian navy mentioned it had struck the Rezonit electronics manufacturing facility close to Moscow, triggering explosions. The Common Employees of the Armed Forces of Ukraine later reported 113 Russian assaults throughout key fronts, together with in Lyman, Pokrovsk, Novopavlivka and Kurakhove.
