Ukraine and Russia earlier returned fallen soldiers’ remains; Moldova and Romania next for Putin, Zelenskyy tells regional summit. What we know on day 1,205
Russia and Ukraine are expected to exchange severely wounded soldiers on Thursday in the latest stage of a large-scale agreement to free more than 1,000 prisoners of war by each side. “Tomorrow, we will begin urgent ‘sanitary exchanges’ of severely wounded prisoners,” Russia’s top negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, posted.
On Wednesday, a Ukrainian government agency announced that “the bodies of 1,212 fallen defenders were returned to Ukraine”. Russia’s top negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, said Russia had “received the remains of 27 Russian soldiers”. Ukraine did not say how many bodies it returned to Russia.
Among the bodies returned on Wednesday were the remains of Ukrainian soldiers killed fighting in the Kharkiv, Lugansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, Kyiv said, as well as those killed during Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region. Ukraine said its experts “will identify the deceased as soon as possible”.
The Ukrainian military said on Wednesday that it had struck a major Russian gunpowder plant in the western Tambov region, causing a fire. It characterised the plant as one of the main facilities in Russia’s military industrial complex, making gunpowder for small arms, artillery and rocket systems. The Tambov regional governor, Yevgeny Pervyshov, confirmed an attack by drones and a fire. The Ukrainian military also said it recorded explosions at an ammunition depot in Russia’s Kursk region and an airfield depot in Russia’s Voronezh region.
