On Thursday, Russia handed over the remains of 1,000 soldiers to Ukraine, in return receiving the bodies of 41 Russian soldiers, according to a source within the Moscow negotiating team.
The exchange of bodies represents one of the few areas of cooperation between the two states since the beginning of the war initiated by Russia against Ukraine in February 2022.
Images broadcast by a Russian agency, Ruptly, show people dressed in white coveralls and gloves carrying body bags between trucks, under the supervision of observers wearing the insignia of the International Red Cross Committee, according to Reuters.
The organization announced as early as March that it facilitates, on average, exchanges of about 1,000 bodies per month between the two sides, most of them belonging to fallen soldiers on the front line.
The conflict in Ukraine, which began on February 24, 2022, is considered the bloodiest war in Europe since World War II. According to estimates, hundreds of thousands of people have lost their lives on both sides.