Kiev — Moscow has handed over more soldiers' remains to Ukraine, officials said on Thursday, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed advances against Russian forces on the eastern front line.
Kiev received 1,000 fallen soldiers, according to the staff responsible for prisoner of war affairs. The handover was mediated by the International Red Cross.
Russian military bloggers wrote that Moscow received the remains of 24 soldiers in return, although this figure has not been officially confirmed.
Ukraine has been defending itself against the Russian invasion for more than three and a half years.
Since the beginning of the year, Kiev has received over 13,000 soldiers' remains from the Russian side.
On the other side, the number is significantly lower. Due to the slow but steady advance of Kremlin troops, only a few Russian casualties remain on the Ukrainian side of the front line.
Zelensky claims territorial gains
The news of the handover came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky praised what he said were major successes by his troops in the war.
During a counter-offensive north-west of the city of Pokrovsk, about 160 square kilometres and seven villages were recaptured and a further 170 square kilometres were "cleared of the enemy," Zelensky said during a visit to near the front line.
In addition, around 100 Russian soldiers were captured.
Zelensky's statements could not be independently verified.
Ukrainian military observers, however, paint a less rosy picture of the situation. According to their account, most of the towns described by Zelensky as liberated remain at least contested.
Bombing kills five in east Ukraine
About 50 kilometres away from Pokrovsk, at least five people have been killed in a Russian bombing raid in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kostiantynivka, according to a local official.
The Russian military dropped a 250-kilogram bomb on a residential area, according to a Telegram post by Vadim Filashkin, governor of the Donetsk region.
Four multi-storey residential buildings were damaged in the attack, he said.
The front line has advanced to within a few kilometres of the industrial city on three sides. About a tenth of the city's former population of over 60,000 is said to still live there.
Russian refineries targeted
Earler, Ukraine launched drone attacks on refineries in two Russian regions near the Volga River, officials said.
The governor of the Volgograd region, Andrei Bocharov, said the city of Volgograd, which has a population of over 1 million, was bombed during the night. He said only minor damage was caused to some residential buildings from falling drone debris.
The Ukrainian military, on the other hand, said the local oil refinery was hit. "According to preliminary information, the refinery's operations have been halted," the military's special forces wrote on Telegram. The information cannot be independently verified.
The refinery in Volgograd is considered one of Russia's largest oil processing plants and has been damaged in attacks in the past. Kiev justifies the repeated attacks by saying the refinery produces fuel for the Russian military.
Another attack took place in the morning in the neighbouring region of Bashkortostan. A chemical plant belonging to Russia's state-owned Gazprom was hit in the city of Salavat by two drones, the head of the region, Radiy Khabirov, said.
While Ukraine launches regular attacks on Russian territory, including on energy facilities, the damage caused is dwarfed by the destruction brought upon Ukrainian territory by Russian strikes.
