Ukraine announced, on Saturday, that it had received 1,200 additional bodies from Russia, in the latest move to an agreement reached by the two sides during peace talks in Istanbul, while Ukrainian President called on Washington to “change its accent” with Moscow.
“Ukraine received 1,200 additional bodies, according to the Russian side, to Ukrainian citizens, including military personnel.”
In early June, during the talks conducted by Kiev and Moscow in Istanbul, the two parties agreed to exchange all the wounded soldiers, the prisoners of war under the age of twenty -five and return the remains of the dead fighters.
This was the only concrete result of discussions.
Since then, the two sides conducted three exchanges, which included Ukraine, the bodies of 1212 of its dead soldiers on Wednesday and 1,200 other bodies on Friday, in one of the largest operations of its kind since the start of the Russian attack more than three years ago.
For its part, Russia announced on Wednesday the restoration of the remains of 27 of its soldiers. She did not reveal any Friday and Saturday operations.
Returning the bodies of the soldiers and the exchange of prisoners of war from the few areas in which Kiev and Moscow have cooperated since the outbreak of the war, but at the end of last week, the two countries exchanged accusations of disrupting them.
This comes as Ukrainian President Volodimir Zellinski called on the United States on Saturday to “change its accent” towards Russia, saying that the Donald Trump administration “is very reconciled” with Moscow, and it should instead tighten the sanctions.
“At the present time, the tone of dialogue between the United States and Russia seems very conciliatory. Let’s be honest: this will not stop Putin. What we need is to change the dialect,” Zellinski said on the X platform.
Zelinski said Thursday that the Ukrainian forces are pushing the Russian forces to retreat around the Sumi area in the northeast of the country.
“Our units in the Sumi area gradually pushing the occupation forces back,” he said in a video message from the Ukrainian army commander Olksander Serski about the situation in the front.
According to Ukrainian military bloggers, Russian forces continue to advance.
Kiev’s general staff report on the situation mentioned artillery attacks on sites in the Sumi area, but he did not mention land battles.
The Russian army mobilized large forces on the border near Sumi, and is trying to create a buffer zone.
After progressing up to 15 km inside the Ukrainian territory, the city of Sumi became within the scope of Russian artillery and short -term marches.
Ukraine has been in Russia for more than three years.
