Kyiv said on Tuesday it had received the bodies of 64 soldiers who died defending the Azovstal steelworks, the last pocket of resistance in Mariupol, as part of an exchange with Moscow which saw Ukraine return the remains of Russian soldiers.
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“Ukraine has recovered the bodies of 64 heroic defenders of Azovstal to bury them with dignity,” the Ukrainian Ministry of Reintegration, responsible for Russian-held territory, said in a statement.
The last Ukrainian defenders of Mariupol, entrenched in the huge Azovstal steelworks on the Sea of Azov, surrendered to Russian forces between May 16 and 20, after three months of intense fighting.
The ministry said the exchange took place in the southern Zaporizhia region, but did not say exactly when or how many bodies of Russian soldiers were returned.
Two previous exchanges between Kyiv and Moscow involving 210 dead Ukrainian soldiers were made public earlier this month.
The process of recovering the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers was carried out in accordance with the standards of the Geneva Convention, the Ukrainian Ministry of Reintegration said.