Russia has returned 1,200 bodies it says are Ukrainian citizens killed in the war, Ukrainian authorities said on Sunday. Meanwhile, heavy fighting continued and Russia claimed to have taken control of a village in the Donetsk region.
The repatriations are taking place after two rounds of direct peace talks in Istanbul, which produced agreements on the exchange of prisoners and the bodies of the dead, but brought no visible progress towards ending Russia's war against Ukraine.
"Another 1,200 bodies, which the Russian side claims belong to Ukrainian citizens, including soldiers, have been returned to Ukraine," the Ukrainian Coordinating Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said on Telegram on Sunday.
Authorities will work to identify the bodies, it added.
This brings the total number of troops sent by Russia to Ukraine to 4,012. Russia has reported that it has received a total of 27 bodies of killed Russian soldiers from Ukraine so far.
According to Russian state media citing anonymous sources, Moscow did not receive any bodies during the June 15 exchange.
Russia and Ukraine have exchanged prisoners of war and the bodies of the dead several times since talks in Istanbul on May 16 and June 2, but Moscow has rejected calls from Kiev and the West for a ceasefire, while fighting continues nearly 40 months after the launch of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 24, 2022.
Russia and Ukraine had made similar exchanges before the Istanbul talks, but without any major impact on the scale of hostilities.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday that Russian forces have taken control of Malinivka, a village in the Donetsk region where some of the fiercest fighting has taken place.
The ministry also said Russian forces had carried out a successful overnight missile strike on a refinery in the city of Kremenchuk, which it said supplies fuel to Ukrainian forces in the Donetsk region. It did not provide further details, and Russia's claims could not be independently verified.
The ministry also added that Russian air defenses have shot down 128 Ukrainian drones and two guided missiles in the past 24 hours.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia launched at least 183 attack drones and 11 missiles overnight, and that Ukraine's air defenses destroyed 167 of them.
"The attack was mainly aimed at the Poltava region, especially Kremenchuk," he wrote on social media.
"Moscow has been doing this for four years and is constantly increasing the number of attacks. Therefore, it is very important to make decisions on strengthening sanctions against Russia in the coming weeks," Zelenskyy said.
"The United States, the European Union and the G7 countries have the power to do this," he added.
Leaders will gather June 15-17 in Canada for the G7 summit - attended by the United States, Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Canada and Japan - which could be dominated by fierce fighting between Israel and Iran.
Zelensky plans to attend and meet with US President Donald Trump, who since the start of his second term in January has sought to mediate to end Russia's war against Ukraine, as well as improve relations with the Kremlin.
Trump has threatened to impose additional sanctions on Russia if he determines that Moscow does not want peace, but has not yet taken that step and has said he may also punish Ukraine if the parties do not make progress toward peace soon.
After a phone call on June 14, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that Putin "feels, as I do, that this war between Israel and Iran must end, and I explained to him that his war must end as well."/ REL (A2 Televizion)
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