May 13 – Ukrainian military authorities on Friday loaded the bodies of Russian soldiers collected after fighting in the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions onto refrigerated wagons.
Volodymr Lyamzin, the head of Ukraine’s civil-military cooperation, said his country is acting in accordance with international law and is ready to return the bodies to Russia.
“According to the norms of international humanitarian law, and Ukraine strictly adheres to them, after the end of the active phase of the conflict, the sides must return the corpses of the military of another country.
“Ukraine is ready to return the bodies to the aggressor,” he said.
Lyamzin said there were several refrigerated trains stationed in different regions of Ukraine where the bodies of Russian soldiers were being kept.
Several hundred bodies were stored at a facility on the outskirts of Kyiv, which was filmed by Reuters.
“Several hundred bodies of Russian occupying forces are kept in this refrigerated train. Most of them were brought from the Kyiv region, there are some from the Chernihiv region and also from some other regions,” Lyamzin said.
Moscow is calling its invasion of Ukraine a “special military operation” to demilitarize a neighbor who threatens its security. Ukraine denies it poses a threat and says Russia is waging a war of aggression that has killed thousands of civilians, uprooted millions others and destroyed towns and cities since the conflict began in late February.
Reporting by Sergiy Karazy; writing by Mark Porter; Editing by Grant McCool