Russia and Ukraine have exchanged more bodies of their war dead, according to a Kremlin aide, as part of an agreement reached during a second round of peace talks in Turkiye last month.

“Following the agreements reached in Istanbul, another 1,000 bodies of Ukrainian soldiers were handed over to Ukraine today,” Vladimir Medinsky, head of Russia’s delegation at the peace talks, said on Telegram on Thursday, adding that Ukraine handed over 19 slain Russian soldiers.

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Exchanges of captured soldiers and the repatriation of remains have taken place regularly since the brief renewal of peace talks in Istanbul in May in what amounts to some of the only successful diplomacy between the two sides in their more than three-year war.

Medinsky posted photos on Thursday showing people in white medical suits lifting white body bags from the back of refrigerated trucks.

Russia plans to return the bodies of 3,000 Ukrainian soldiers, and this exchange marked the beginning of that process, Russia’s RIA state news agency reported.

During their direct meeting in Istanbul on June 2, Russia and Ukraine pledged to swap at least 1,000 soldiers on each side.

Negotiators from both sides also agreed to swap all severely wounded soldiers as well as all captured fighters under the age of 25.

But future talks to discuss a path to end the war have stalled as the gulf between Moscow and Kyiv has remained unchanged despite repeated pressure from United States President Donald Trump that Russia agree to a ceasefire.

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At the talks, Russia outlined a list of hardline demands, including for Ukraine to cede more territory and to reject all forms of Western military support.

Kyiv dismissed them as unacceptable ultimatums and has questioned the point of further negotiations if Moscow is not willing to make concessions.

In a further diplomatic development, another round of reunification of minors with their families in Russia and Ukraine took place on Thursday with the mediation of Qatar at its Moscow embassy. Eleven children will reunite with their families in Ukraine and three others with their families in Russia. So far, more than 100 children have reunited with their families since Qatar began facilitating the process.

Ukraine said Russia took 20,000 children during the war and has given Moscow a list of hundreds who, they said, were taken from Russian-occupied Ukrainian regions since 2022.

Russian President Vladimir Putin faces war crime charges before the International Criminal Court in The Hague for the alleged “unlawful deportation and transfer of children”.

Before the latest prisoner exchange, a Russian air strike on a shopping centre and market in Dobropillia in eastern Ukraine killed at least two people, wounded 22 and caused widespread damage on Wednesday, Governor Vadym Filashkin said. Filashkin said the building was struck by a 500kg (1,100lb) bomb.

In its latest overnight attacks, Russia launched 400 Shahed and decoy drones as well as one ballistic missile, the Ukrainian air force said. The strikes targeted the northeastern city of Kharkiv, the central city of Kryvyi Rih, Vinnytsia in the west and Odesa in the south.

The Russian Ministry of Defence announced that its forces had captured the settlements of Popiv Yar in the eastern region of Donetsk, Degtiarne in Kharkiv in the northeast and Kamianske in Zaporizhia in the south.