Moscow, Jun 11 (PTI) Russia on Wednesday returned 1,212 bodies of Ukrainian servicemen killed during the fighting on the eastern front and received 27 bodies in exchange.

"The transfer of fallen soldiers' bodies has begun in accordance with the Istanbul agreements," Russian Presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky wrote on his Telegram channel.

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During the second round of talks with Ukraine in Istanbul on June 2, Russian negotiator Medinsky had offered to hand over 6,000 frozen bodies to Kiev without any preconditions and had expressed Moscow's readiness to accept any such bodies of Russian servicemen.

Russia and Ukraine have also exchanged two batches of prisoners of war (PoWs) under the age of 25 as agreed in Istanbul.

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On June 12, they are preparing a humanitarian exchange of seriously wounded PoWs requiring urgent hospitalisation, Medinsky said, according to the state-controlled Vesti FM radio.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)