Ukraine receives 252 bodies of fallen soldiers in latest repatriation
Ukraine's General Staff says 252 bodies, which the Russian side says are Ukrainian defenders, were returned on 22 October. They will be sent for expert examination and identification.
Ukraine received 252 bodies (remains) on 22 October that the Russian side says belong to Ukrainian soldiers, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said on Telegram. The remains have not yet been identified.
The General Staff said the return took place under what it called repatriation measures. The announcement did not say where the handover happened. It did not say how many of the remains had been counted as soldiers killed in recent fighting.
Identification still ahead
The General Staff stressed that the identities of the dead rest on information from the Russian side. The remains will now be transported to designated institutions for "necessary expert examinations and identification". The Joint Centre for Support of Civil-Military Cooperation Measures of the Armed Forces will handle the transport.
Until that work is finished, it is not known how many of the 252 can be named or when families will be notified. The General Staff gave no timeline.
Who took part
The General Staff said the repatriation was the result of joint work by:
- the General Staff of the Armed Forces;
- the Joint Centre under the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU);
- the Secretariat of the Commissioner for Persons Missing Under Special Circumstances;
- the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War;
- the State Emergency Service;
- other parts of Ukraine's security and defence sector.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) also assisted in returning the dead service members, according to the statement.
The "On the Shield" project
The General Staff gave particular credit to the search groups of the Armed Forces' humanitarian project "On the Shield" (in Ukrainian, "Na shchyti"). The project's name echoes an old military saying about being carried home on one's shield. The groups are coordinated by the Central Directorate of Civil-Military Cooperation of the General Staff.
According to the statement, the searchers keep working despite constant risks, including enemy shelling, the threat of drones and remote mining. The statement did not say where the groups operate or how many bodies they recovered.
"The 'On the Shield' mission continues. Its goal is unchanged — that fallen defenders find their way home," the General Staff wrote. It expressed condolences to the families and relatives of the dead.
Background
Repatriation of the dead is a recurring part of the war. Remains are handed over through arrangements that involve the ICRC, and Ukraine's own examination and identification process usually takes time. Families of those missing in action often wait a long time for confirmation. The Commissioner for Persons Missing Under Special Circumstances is a state body created to coordinate the search for people who disappeared during the war.
RealUA's archive holds no earlier reports on this specific repatriation process. The account above relies on the General Staff's statement alone. It could not be independently verified, and the Russian side's account of the handover was not available.
