Russia announced on Friday that it is prepared to transfer the bodies of an additional 3,000 fallen Ukrainian soldiers, pending acceptance by Kiev. Vladimir Medinsky, head of Russia’s negotiating team, stated, “Our military is ready to hand them over so that their families can finally identify and give them a Christian burial.”
This latest offer follows a prior transfer earlier this month, when Russia handed over the remains of 6,000 Ukrainian soldiers under a June 2 agreement brokered during talks in Istanbul. In return, Russia received the bodies of 79 of its servicemen.
Ukraine initially resisted accepting the bodies but eventually agreed, reportedly due to internal political pressure and appeals from Western allies to honor the dead.
Earlier this week, Ukrainian officials accused Moscow of also sending the remains of Russian soldiers disguised among the Ukrainian dead—a claim Medinsky denied. He acknowledged that one instance in a February handover involved a Russian soldier being mistakenly transferred to Ukraine but insisted that such a mistake has not occurred in the current June transfers.
Russian officials say most of the Ukrainian bodies were collected from the battlefield during and after Ukraine’s failed offensive into the Kursk region, which spanned from August 2024 to April 2025. Video footage and reports released by Russian sources show numerous Ukrainian casualties reportedly left behind during retreat or abandoned in the chaos of combat.
Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated on Friday that Ukraine’s losses during the Kursk offensive totaled 76,000 troops—a figure Ukraine has not confirmed and Western sources have not independently verified.
Putin also addressed the situation in Sumy, clarifying that Russia has no immediate plans to capture the city, although he did not rule out that objectives could change. Russian forces are currently within approximately 10 miles (16 kilometers) of Sumy in some areas following their advance into the region after Ukrainian troops were expelled from Kursk.