UKRAINE – On Friday Dec. 19, Ukraine and Russia exchanged the bodies of fallen soldiers in accordance with the Istanbul agreement.

“As part of the Istanbul agreements, the bodies of 1,000 fallen Ukrainian soldiers have been handed over to Ukraine,” presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky wrote on Telegram, adding that Kyiv returned the bodies of 26 Russian servicemen to Moscow.

In a statement, Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War also announced the exchange, saying it received the bodies of 1,003 of its servicemen.

“We express our gratitude for the assistance of the International Committee of the Red Cross,” the statement added, without mentioning the number of bodies returned to the Russian side.

Moscow and Kyiv conducted three rounds of renewed peace talks in Istanbul – on May 16, June 2, and July 23 – which produced major prisoner swaps and draft memorandums outlining positions of both sides for a potential peace deal.

The last such exchange of bodies reported by the two countries took place in November.