Ukraine war: Russia returns bodies of 501 soldiers [Video]

KYIV, Ukraine –

Russia on Friday returned to Ukraine the bodies of 501 soldiers, Ukrainian authorities said, in what appeared to be the biggest repatriation of war dead since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Most of the soldiers were killed in action in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine, mostly around the city of Avdiivka that Russian forces captured in February after a long and gruelling battle, Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said in a statement.

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Law enforcement agencies and forensic experts will identify the victims, who will then be handed to family members for burial, it said.

The war is believed to have killed tens of thousands of soldiers on each side, though there are no official or independently collated figures.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy this week disclosed parts of his …