Bodies of 757 fallen defenders returned to Ukraine

Ukraine has returned the bodies of another 757 soldiers who lost their lives in the war against the Russian occupiers. Among them are defenders from Donetsk, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia regions and the remains of soldiers who were kept in Russian morgues.

After the identification of the fallen heroes, their bodies will be handed over to their families for a decent burial. This was reported by the Coordination Headquarters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

"As a result of the repatriation activities, the bodies of 757 fallen defenders were returned to Ukraine," the statement reads.

The soldiers returning home on the shield are defenders from the Kurakhiv, Pokrovsk, Bakhmut, Vuhledar, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia directions. Russia also handed over the bodies of soldiers who were in Russian morgues.

"The fallen defenders were returned as a result of the joint work of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, the Central Department of Civil-Military Cooperation of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Joint Center at the Security Service 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 Persons Missing in Special Circumstances, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, and other structures of the Security and Defense Sector of Ukraine," the Coordination Headquarters said in a statement.

They also thanked the International Committee of the Red Cross for its assistance in returning the bodies of Ukrainian Heroes and expressed special gratitude to the personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who transport repatriated fallen Heroes to designated state specialized institutions, organize the transfer of the dead to law enforcement officials in the Ministry of Internal Affairs and forensic medical examination in the Ministry of Health.

"Investigators of law enforcement agencies together with expert institutions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs will identify the victims as soon as possible," the Coordination Center assured.

Russian propagandists are massively circulating statements that, while handing over hundreds of bodies of Ukrainian soldiers, Russia took dozens of liquidated occupiers: in the propagandists' view, this should indicate that Ukraine's losses are much greater than Russia's.

At the same time, they "forget" to add that during the bloody Russian offensive, the fields and forest strips in Ukraine, covered with the corpses of the invaders eliminated in meat assaults, remained under the control of the occupation army. So do the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers whom their comrades-in-arms failed to take from the battlefield. This explains the imbalance in such exchanges, on which the aggressor state is trying to build propaganda.

In late January, as a result of repatriation measures, the bodies of hundreds of fallen defenders were also returned to Ukraine. Just like this time, some defended the Donetsk region, where Russia is slowly but surely advancing.

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