KYIV -- Kyiv and Moscow have conducted an exchange of the remains of soldiers killed, a development that appears unrelated to the disputed downing of a Russian military transport plane, which the Kremlin said was carrying 65 Ukrainian POWs, killing them and nine others on board.
“Another repatriation event took place, as a result of which fallen servicemen were returned to Ukraine: the remains of 77 defenders of Ukraine were returned to [Ukrainian] territory,” Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said in a statement on January 26, while also thanking the International Committee of the Red Cross for its assistance.
Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine
RFE/RL's Ukraine Live Briefing gives you the latest developments on Russia's invasion, Western military aid, the plight of civilians, and territorial control maps. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here.
The statement added that “work on preparations for the repatriation measure had been under way for a long time.”
Separately, Russia’s Interfax news agency said on January 26 that the Ukrainian side had transferred the bodies of 55 Russian soldiers to Russia.
"Fifty-five bodies of soldiers have been returned to Russia from Ukraine," said Shamsail Saraliyev, a State Duma deputy who is a member of the parliamentary coordination group on war-related issues.
Several previous repatriations of soldiers' remains have been carried out by both sides in the past as Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine nears the two-year mark on February 24.
The latest action comes as Ukraine and Russia have contradicted each other over whether there had been proper notification to secure the airspace around an area where an Ilyushin Il-76 Russian military transport plane crashed, with Moscow saying dozens of Ukrainian POWs were among the dead.
Neither statement on January 26 mentioned the crash, which occurred two days earlier.
Russian lawmaker Andrei Kartapolov -- without providing evidence -- told deputies in Moscow on January 25 that Ukrainian military intelligence had been given a 15-minute warning before the plane entered the Belgorod region in Russia, near the border with Ukraine, and that Russia had received confirmation the message was received.
Ukrainian military intelligence spokesman Andriy Yusov reiterated in comments to RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service that it had not received either a written or verbal request to secure the airspace where the plane went down.
There has been no direct confirmation from Kyiv on Russian claims that the plane had Ukrainian POWs on board or that the aircraft was downed by a Ukrainian antiaircraft missile.
Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed on January 26 that Kyiv was aware that the plane had been carrying POWs. He said a report would be issued on the matter in two to three days.
"The main intelligence department of the Ukrainian Army knew we were taking 65 servicemen there. "I don't know whether they did it on purpose or by mistake, out of thoughtlessness -- but they did it," Putin said.
Meanwhile, Putin repeated remarks made last month that more than 600,000 Russian troops are engaged in the Ukraine war, which the Kremlin refers to as a “special military operation.”
"Perhaps there are some questions that require additional attention and decisions. Something always has to be readjusted, because the battle zone is large, nearly 2,000 kilometers, and there are 617,000 people deployed across the combat zone," Putin told a meeting with university students, according to Russia’s Interfax news agency.
Moscow generally has provided few details of Russian troop deployments to Ukraine.
At least 42,284 Russian military personnel have been killed since the start of the country's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, according to research by journalists from Mediazona and the BBC Russian Service, who have established the deceased soldiers' identities. Analysts estimate the real number of dead could be several times higher.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said his nation's ground forces also number about 600,000.