Russia and Ukraine exchanged prisoners-of-war (POWs) on Saturday, the Russian defence ministry said, and Russia handed over the bodies of 1,200 dead Ukrainian soldiers to Kyiv. The exchanges are part of agreements reached by the warring sides during talks in Istanbul earlier this month.

Russia and Ukraine swapped prisoners of war on Saturday. Moscow returned 1,200 Ukrainian soldiers' bodies but claims it received no Russian war dead from Kyiv.

Since then, Russia and Ukraine have swapped dozens of prisoners of war, focusing on under-25s and the severely wounded and sick. There are hopes they could build into some of the biggest exchanges in the war that was triggered by Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Russia and Ukraine conducted their fourth prisoner swap in a week, the Russian defense ministry said Saturday, and Russia handed over the bodies of

Ukraine and Russia carried out another exchange of prisoners of war as agreed in the 2 June Istanbul talks. Kyiv has not revealed how many Ukrainian defenders have been exchanged at each stage, saying only that the Thursday swap focused on severely wounded soldiers.

Ukraine has received the bodies of 1,212 soldiers killed in the war with Russia and are set to exchange “severely wounded” prisoners today, officials in Kyiv and Moscow said. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The prisoners of war (POWs) were released as part of a prisoner exchange with Russia agreed upon during recent peace talks in Istanbul, the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of the POWs said.

Russia and Ukraine said they exchanged an unspecified number of sick and wounded prisoners of war on Tuesday under an agreement reached at peace talks last week in Turkey. The handover took place after an initial swap of prisoners under the age of 25 was conducted on Monday.

Ukraine has received 1,200 bodies of its soldiers killed in the war with Russia, Ukrainian officials responsible for exchanging prisoners of war said on Saturday. The prisoner exchange coordination committee said in a statement on the Telegram that the return of the bodies was part of the agreements reached by Ukraine and Russia during their talks in Istanbul earlier this month.