Russia and Ukraine exchange bodies of dead soldiers

Ukraine and Russia have carried out a new exchange of bodies of dead soldiers, Ukrainian officials and Russian state media said on Thursday (20 November).

Ukraine said it received 1,000 bodies and Russian state news agency TASS quoted an unidentified source as saying Moscow got back 30.

"Investigators from law enforcement bodies, together with expert agencies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, will soon conduct all necessary examinations and identify the repatriated bodies," Ukraine's prisoner-of-war coordination centre said on Telegram.

The two sides have conducted a series of such swaps, as well as exchanging live prisoners, in the course of the war that began with Russia's full-blown invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022. Peace talks remained stalled, however, and negotiators from the two sides have not met face-to-face since July 23, when they talked for just 40 minutes in Istanbul.

European countries pushed back on Thursday against a US-backed peace plan for Ukraine that sources said would require Kyiv to give up more land and partially disarm, conditions long seen by Ukraine's allies as tantamount to capitulation.

Ukraine has previously accused Russia of returning bodies in a disorderly way, and of sometimes sending the bodies of Russian soldiers. Moscow has denied this.