Russian and Ukrainian officials meet in Belarus

Delegations from Moscow and Kiev have met in Belarus to exchange bodies of the fallen and discuss humanitarian matters, Russian Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova has revealed.

The last time Moskalkova met with her Ukrainian counterpart, Dmitry Lubinets, was in January 2023.

“We exchanged lists of persons visited by mutual consent and letters from prisoners to their relatives, and also discussed further humanitarian cooperation in providing assistance to civilians, including establishing the location and reunification of families, and mutual visits to prisoners,” Moskalkova said on Friday, in a statement posted on Telegram.

One family reunification has already taken place. Anna Kondratyevna, a 91-year-old resident of Cherkasy Region, was brought to Belarus so she could be transferred to Russia and be taken care of by her family there.

“Her son asked us for help in transferring his mother to Russia, where he could look after her,” Moskalkova said, noting that the Ukrainian side agreed, but the situation was complicated by the fact that Kondratyevna could not move independently.

The meeting in Belarus was also used to exchange the remains of fallen soldiers. Russia received 37 bodies, while handing Ukraine 563. Among the remains handed over to Ukraine were the bodies of 62 POWs killed in January this year, when a Russian Il-76 transport airplane was shot down over Belgorod Region by Ukraine’s US-supplied Patriot missiles.

The lopsided numbers point the real ratio of casualties on the battlefield, multiple Russian media outlets have said.

Moskalkova announced a pending meeting with Lubinets in mid-October, without revealing its time and place. She said at the time that the talks would address the condition of detention of prisoners, allegations of torture, and the fate of civilians forcibly relocated by Ukrainian invaders in Russia’s Kursk Region.