As a result of repatriation efforts, the bodies of 909 fallen defenders have been returned to Ukraine. This was reported by the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War.
"Among those returned are defenders who fell in the Kurakhove direction, Pokrovsk direction, Bakhmut direction, Vuhledar direction, Luhansk direction, Zaporizhzhia direction, Sumy direction, Kharkiv direction, and from morgues on the territory of the russian federation", - the message on the Telegram channel states.
It is noted that the return of the fallen defenders was made possible through the joint efforts of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, the Joint Center under the Security Service of Ukraine, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, the Office of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, the Secretariat of the Commissioner for Missing Persons under Special Circumstances, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, and other structures of Ukraine’s security and defense sector.
In turn, the Ukrainian side handed over the bodies of 41 deceased russian servicemen found on Ukrainian territory, which were returned to russia, according to the "I Want to Find" project.
"Today, April 18, 2025, with the mediation of the International Committee of the Red Cross, 41 bodies of deceased russian servicemen found in Ukraine were returned to russia as part of the repatriation process", - the statement reads.
It is noted that these bodies and remains were collected by Ukrainian search teams primarily in the Pokrovsk and Bakhmut districts of the Donetsk oblast, as well as in the Kharkiv oblast. Additionally, remains found in the Mykolaiv oblast and near the settlements of Dolyna and Krasnopillia in the Donetsk oblast were also returned to russia. These are the remains of those who died in the first months of the russian invasion in 2022.
Notably, only five of the 41 deceased russian military personnel had identification tags on them, which allowed for preliminary identification. Several other bodies were found with personal documents, but the majority were handed over as "unknown".