Russia handed over bodies of Ukrainian soldiers mixed with remains of occupants – Interior Ministry

During the latest repatriations, Russia handed over to Ukraine the bodies of its military mixed with those of Ukrainian defenders. This was reported by Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko.

According to him, the return of the bodies of the dead is one of the most difficult but extremely necessary missions. Each repatriation is followed by an autopsy, a thorough examination by an investigator, DNA testing and verification of every detail.

Klymenko emphasized that this process is already complicated and lengthy, and the Russian Federation is deliberately complicating the identification process for Ukraine.

"Bodies are returned in an extremely mutilated state, parts of bodies are in different bags. There are cases when the remains of one person are returned even during different stages of repatriation. In addition, during the last repatriations, we received the bodies of Russian soldiers mixed with the bodies of Ukrainians. Unfortunately, this is a fact," the minister said .

He believes that this could have been done deliberately by the Russians to increase the number of bodies transferred and to load up on the work of experts, adding to the information pressure.

"Or it could be their usual negligent attitude to their own people. In any case, we will identify these bodies as well," added the Interior Minister .

The minister emphasized that Ukrainian experts are working at the limit of what is possible. Each examination is carried out thoroughly and more than once.

"The specialists are trained, the laboratories are equipped, and the processes are well established. The biggest challenge is time. We understand the pain and expectations of families. We speed up the identification process as much as possible. But with each large repatriation, it becomes more difficult to do so, and perhaps this is Russia's goal," he wrote.

• On June 2, the second round of negotiations between Ukraine and Russia took place in Istanbul. The meeting agreed, in particular, on a new exchange of prisoners and bodies of fallen soldiers.
• On June 16, Ukraine managed to return another 1,245 bodies of fallen soldiers. The repatriation part of the Istanbul agreements has been completed – in total, Ukraine has received 6057 bodies in five days.