Ukraine, Russia exchange remains as PM elected in Kyiv
Ukraine and Russia are pursuing a new exchange for the remains of their fallen soldiers, both sides say, after lawmakers in Kiev approved Sergii Koretskyi as the country’s new prime minister.
The Coordination Center for the Treatment of Prisoners of War in Ukraine said that Ukraine received the bodies of 501 Ukrainian soldiers.
Russian media reported that authorities in Moscow received the bodies of 31 Russian soldiers.
Since the beginning of 2025, Ukraine has recovered the remains of approximately 21,000 fallen soldiers, while Russia has received approximately 660 bodies in return.
The huge disparity is attributed to the steady advance of Russian forces, which often leaves Ukrainian troops unable to recover their dead on the battlefield.
Ukraine has been defending itself against a large-scale Russian invasion since February 2022.
Both sides keep military casualty figures secret.
But estimates based on publicly available obituaries and other open-source data put the number of Ukrainian military deaths at around 200,000, while Russian military losses are at 350,000.
Ukraine’s parliament approved the new government led by new Prime Minister Koretskyi on Thursday.
Koretskyi, the former head of state-run energy company Naftogaz, received 289 votes in parliament, well above the required 226.
The voting does not include the defense and foreign ministers proposed by the president according to the Ukrainian system.
The extraordinary exit of outgoing Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov has exposed a rift at the heart of Ukraine’s war effort and pitted a new guard at the head of the armed forces, pushing technology as the way to defeat Russia.
The 35-year-old, who was dismissed this week due to a government overhaul just six months into his term, launched a harsh tirade against General Oleksandr Syrskyi, whom he accused of inciting intrigue, obstructing his initiatives and sabotaging his work.
The tension was revealed to the public for the first time.
Fedorov said he agreed to handle things with Syrskyi after he unsuccessfully petitioned President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to replace him, but Ukraine’s top general began deliberately undermining him behind the scenes.
“We are faced with a situation where all the initiatives we propose are blocked, and Syrskyi is not ready to look me in the eye and talk openly about the problems, considering all the problems we are discussing today,” Fedorov said. he said.
He accused Syrskyi of presiding over a dysfunctional culture of lies, poorly organized units, and a lack of personal responsibility in the military; This was astonishing rhetoric at the level of the man who has led the Ukrainian armed forces since February 2024.
“Instead of trying to figure out how to defeat Russia asymmetrically … he tried to figure out how to divide the country,” he said at a news conference as lawmakers met to discuss the makeup of the new cabinet.
Syrskyi then made a brief statement, thanking Fedorov for his work as defense minister and saying Ukraine should focus on the war.
Fedorov oversaw the increase in production of medium-range and deep-strike drones and facilitated defense purchases.
Hundreds of Ukrainians came out to support Fedorov in a rare wartime demonstration in Kiev on Thursday.
In his speech, Fedorov paid tribute to Syrskyi’s past military victories, but said that “war has changed completely” and that unmanned aerial vehicles are driving a rapid cycle of evolution.
In his first public comments, Zelenskiy confirmed there was a disagreement between the two men and added that he was not in a position to say how it would be resolved.
Aside from the role of technology, and especially the drones that Fedorov supported, one of the main focuses of the Ukrainian military was the lack of infantry soldiers; This is an issue that neither the army nor the ministry of defense can deal with.
Zelenskiy said interior minister Ihor Klymenko, who has been floated as a possible successor to Fedorov, could be well positioned to deal with the problem of military servicemen dragging civilian men onto buses to serve in the armed forces.
This phenomenon, popularly known as “busing”, was widely disliked and increased social tensions throughout the war.
via Reuters
