Russia and Ukraine conducted their fourth prisoner swap in a week, the Russian defense ministry said Saturday, and Russia handed over the bodies of 1,200 dead Ukrainian soldiers to Kyiv.
"We continue to take our people out of Russian captivity. This is the fourth exchange in a week," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on social media.
"In accordance with the Russian-Ukrainian agreements... another group of Russian servicemen was returned from the territory controlled by the Kyiv regime," Russia's defense ministry said on Telegram.
Kyiv also said it had received another batch of 1,200 unidentified bodies from Russia, which it said Russia claimed "belong to Ukrainian citizens, including military personnel," as part of the Istanbul agreements as well.
Ukraine did not say whether it returned any bodies to Russia.
Photos published by Zelenskyy on Telegram showed men of various ages, mostly with shaved heads, wearing camouflage and draped in Ukrainian flags.
Some were injured, others disembarked from buses and hugged those welcoming them, or were seen calling someone by phone, sometimes covering their faces or smiling.
Moscow's defense ministry released its own video showing men in uniforms holding Russian flags, clapping and chanting "Russia, Russia", "glory to Russia" and "hooray", some raising their fists in the air.
The exchange came as Russia repeatedly rejected ceasefire calls and intensified its offensive along the front line, and especially in the northeastern Sumy region, where it seeks to establish a "buffer zone" to protect its Kursk region, previously partly occupied by Ukraine.
Zelenskyy claimed Russia's advance on Sumy was stopped, adding that Kyiv's forces have managed to retake one village.
According to the Ukrainian president, Russia was using 53,000 men in the Sumy operation.
