Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said investigators from law enforcement agencies, together with representatives of expert institutions, will carry out all necessary identification procedures for the repatriated dead. The repatriation effort involved the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Ukraine's Interior Ministry, the office of the Verkhovna Rada commissioner for human rights, the State Emergency Service, and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The exchange was confirmed to RBC by Shamsail Saraliyev, a State Duma deputy and member of the parliamentary coordination group on the "special military operation." The TASS news agency, citing Alexander Kots, a "war correspondent" for Komsomolskaya Pravda who sits on the presidential Human Rights Council, also reported 261 bodies handed over and 24 received.
The previous exchange of fallen soldiers' bodies took place on July 16, when Russia received 31 bodies and Ukraine received the remains of 501 people. Before that, such an exchange occurred on June 18. Russia and Ukraine agreed to regular exchanges of military and civilian prisoners, as well as the bodies of fallen soldiers, during talks in Istanbul in May-July 2025 as part of efforts to end the full-scale war launched by Russia.