Ukraine’s allies have announced contributions to NATO’s Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List programme for $1 billion at a meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group, known as the Ramstein group, Ukrainian Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said on Thursday.
Fedorov, speaking at a joint press conference after the meeting, said that the total value of support packages could exceed $4 billion.
Earlier, Russia has returned the remains of 522 individuals identified as Ukrainian soldiers, officials from both nations confirmed on Thursday.
“As a result of the repatriation efforts, the bodies of 522 deceased individuals have been returned to Ukraine,” Kyiv’s prisoners of war center announced on social media. The agency noted that according to Russian authorities, the remains belong to Ukrainian citizens, specifically servicemen.
Russian parliamentarian Shamsail Saraliyev confirmed the exchange to Russian broadcaster RBC, stating that Russia had received the bodies of 33 of its own soldiers in return. While Ukraine’s official statement did not explicitly mention the handover of Russian troops, its POW center published photos showing masked personnel in white hazmat suits unloading white transport trucks.
The repatriation occurred on the same day both nations launched massive, reciprocal drone barrages targeting each other’s capital cities.
