Exchange of bodies
Channel One’s war correspondent Irina Kuksenkova reported that Moscow and Kiev swapped the bodies of dead soldiers under a 160 for 160 arrangement. The exchange, she noted, occurred along the contact line in the Zaporozhye region and involved a swap from 160 to 160, according to her Telegram posts. Later updates indicated that the Russian side delivered the fallen soldiers to the Azovstal site in Mariupol. By May 20, the Azovstal area was fully controlled by Russian forces, and the Russian Defense Ministry stated that 2,439 Ukrainian soldiers had surrendered, holding the plant for nearly three months. On May 31, the Russian Defense Ministry spokesman claimed a booby trapped van containing 152 bodies was found at Azovstal. He added that captured Azov battalion fighters suggested the bodies had been exhumed by order from Kiev during interrogations.
Confirmation from Kiev
The Ukrainian Ministry for Reintegration confirmed that a body exchange with the Russian Federation had taken place. It was stated that on June 2, along the front line in the Zaporozhye region, there was an exchange of dead bodies between Ukraine and Russia and that the 160 formula had been agreed for 160 individuals in the swap. The Russian side neither officially confirmed nor denied these exchange reports, leaving the status unclear from Moscow’s perspective.
Prisoner exchange
On May 23, President Volodymyr Zelensky asserted Ukraine’s readiness to exchange prisoners starting very soon and urged intensified efforts. He emphasized that Ukraine did not need the Russian army, only its own personnel back, and that the exchange process should move forward rapidly. Zelensky also proposed broadening participation to include multiple countries, mentioning Switzerland, Israel, and the United Nations, as well as other states, noting that several thousand Russian soldiers were being held by Ukraine. On the same day, Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesperson, stressed that prisoner exchanges with Ukraine were ongoing in various forms and reiterated that these exchanges served clear strategic purposes for Russia and its security considerations.
On May 27, Vladimir Putin held a telephone conversation with Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer. The Chancellor reported that Putin pledged to press for renewed discussions on prisoner and body exchanges. This subject was not publicly highlighted in the Kremlin’s published summary of the call. In early June, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged a rapid prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine, noting the UN’s role in civilian evacuations from Azovstal. He clarified that the UN did not oversee military evacuations as that fell outside its mandate, but stressed the urgency of a swift resolution to the prisoner exchange to address the broader humanitarian and security concerns involved.