Russia, Ukraine agree to swap bodies of 12,000 soldiers; mull return of kids

Russia and Ukraine said they had agreed at peace talks on Monday to exchange more prisoners of war and return the bodies of 12,000 dead soldiers.

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The warring sides met for barely an hour in the Istanbul, for the second round of such negotiations since March 2022.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan described it as a great meeting and said that he hoped to bring together Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy for a meeting in Turkey with US President Donald Trump.

But there was no breakthrough on a proposed ceasefire that Ukraine, its European allies and Washington have all urged Russia to accept. Moscow says it seeks a long-term settlement, not a pause in the war; while Kyiv says Putin is not interested in peace.

Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky said Russian negotiators had handed their Ukrainian counterparts a detailed memorandum outlining Moscow’s terms for a full ceasefire.

Medinsky, who heads the Russian team, said Moscow had also suggested a “specific ceasefire of two to three days in certain sections of the front” so that the bodies of dead soldiers could be collected.

Each side said it would hand over the bodies of 6,000 dead soldiers to the other side. In addition, they said they would conduct a further big swap of prisoners of war, after 1,000 captives on each side were traded, following a first round of talks in Istanbul on May 15.

Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, who headed Kyiv’s delegation, said the new exchange would focus on those severely injured and young people. Umerov also said that Moscow had handed a draft peace accord to Ukraine and that Kyiv — which has drawn up its own version —would review the Russian document.

Ukraine has proposed holding more talks before the end of June, but believes that only a meeting between Zelenskyy and Putin can resolve the many issues of contention, Umerov said.

Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said Kyiv’s delegation had requested the return of a list of children, who it said had been deported to Russia. Moscow says such children were moved to protect them from fighting. Medinsky said there were 339 names on Ukraine’s list but that the children had been “saved”, not stolen.