New Delhi, June 11 -- Ukraine announced on Wednesday that Russia has returned the bodies of 1,212 soldiers who lost their lives fighting Moscow's invasion, marking a significant step in humanitarian cooperation between the two nations. This repatriation was part of an agreement reached during recent peace negotiations held in Istanbul last week, where both sides also agreed on prisoner exchanges.

The Ukrainian government confirmed that the remains include soldiers who died in key conflict zones such as Kharkiv, Lugansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson, as well as casualties from Ukraine's counteroffensive in Russia's Kursk region.

Ukrainian forensic experts are now working swiftly to identify the deceased.

Despite this progress, the...