War in Ukraine: Russia announces that it has handed over a thousand remains of Ukrainian soldiers to kyiv

Russia handed over to Ukraine the remains of a thousand Ukrainian soldiers and received in return the bodies of 35 Russian soldiers, a Kremlin advisor said on Thursday, February 26.

“The bodies of 1,000 killed Ukrainian soldiers have been handed over to Ukraine. Russia received in return the bodies of 35 Russian soldiers,” Kremlin advisor and negotiator Vladimir Medinski wrote on Telegram.

The exchange of remains of fighters is one of the few areas of cooperation between Moscow and Ukraine since the start of the large-scale Russian offensive against its neighbor, which entered its fifth year on Tuesday.

Vladimir Medinski accompanied his press release with a photo of individuals in white protective suits carrying body bags out of a refrigerated truck.

Resumption of Ukrainian-American discussions

The announcement comes ahead of talks in Geneva between kyiv negotiator Roustem Oumerov and US President Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, with a view to preparing new trilateral discussions with Russia expected in early March. Kremlin economic adviser Kirill Dmitriev is also due to meet Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Geneva.

Washington is pushing for a resolution to the conflict which has left hundreds of thousands dead and injured and caused massive destruction in Ukraine, but the talks are blocked in particular by the fact that Moscow demands that kyiv abandon some of its territories, which Ukraine refuses.

On the front, the fighting continues. Russia launched 420 drones and 39 missiles on Ukraine overnight from Wednesday to Thursday, causing dozens of injuries and destruction in eight regions, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced.