Russia on Tuesday returned the bodies of what it said were 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers, five of whom died while in captivity, a Ukrainian government agency said.

Ukraine returned the bodies of 19 Russian soldiers in exchange, a Russian official said.

Tens of thousands of soldiers have been killed on both sides since Russia invaded its neighbour in February 2022, though neither side regularly publishes data on their own casualties.

The exchange of prisoners of war and repatriation of war dead has been one of the few areas of cooperation between the two countries since the war began.

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The two sides have intensified these efforts in recent months during talks in Istanbul.

“According to the Russian side, 1,000 bodies belonging to Ukrainian military personnel have been returned to Ukraine,” Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said in a statement on Telegram.

“Unfortunately, among those repatriated are the bodies of five Ukrainian servicemen who died in captivity,” it added.

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It said law enforcement would begin the process of identifying the soldiers.

The exchange was carried out by agreements reached between the two sides in Istanbul, Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said.

Kyiv initially said the two had agreed to “exchange” the bodies of 6,000 Ukrainian soldiers for as many Russians, though Moscow has always presented the deal as a unilateral decision to repatriate Ukrainians.

AFP

Russian politicians have ridiculed European leaders following the White House meeting on the Ukraine war.

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev called it “anti-Russian warmongering Coalition of the Willing” and ineffective.

He claimed that they thanked and sucked up to U.S. President Donald Trump but failed to outplay him.

In his post on X on Monday, Medvedev also mocked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, questioning how the “clown from Kiev” would act once he was back home and wearing his military uniform.

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The talks in Washington involved Trump, Zelensky, and top European officials, including German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron.

Others are: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.

The European leaders discussed a peace process and stressed that Ukraine must receive strong security guarantees.

Trump suggested a rapid follow-up meeting between Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin, which could then pave the way to a meeting that would also include him.

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Russian foreign policy expert Konstantin Kosachev said on Telegram that, under pressure from Trump, Ukraine and the Europeans had to moderate their anti-Russian stance.

“Times have changed. Neither Kiev nor Brussels can bark at Russia hidden behind the American back,” wrote the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Russian Federation Council.

One consistent message was opposition to European capitals being involved in peace negotiations.

Leonid Slutsky, head of the Russian State Duma’s foreign affairs committee, said: “Europe should follow Vladimir Putin’s call and not interfere in the negotiation process.”

(dpa/NAN)

Google has agreed to pay a fine of 55 million Australian dollars (US$36 million) after admitting to anticompetitive agreements with the country’s two largest telecommunications firms, Telstra and Optus.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission announced the penalty on Monday in a statement obtained from its website , saying the arrangements between the tech giant and the two telcos reduced search competition and consumer choice in Australia.

According to the ACCC, Google’s Singapore-based Asia Pacific division entered into contracts with Telstra and Optus between late 2019 and early 2021.

Under the agreements, the telcos were banned from installing rival search engines on Android smartphones sold to customers.

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The deals, which ran for about 15 months until March 2021, ensured that Google Search was the sole pre-installed option on Android devices. In return, Telstra and Optus received a share of advertising revenue generated from users’ searches.

The regulator said Google had accepted that the agreements were likely to “substantially lessen competition.”

Proceedings have been launched in the Federal Court, which will decide whether the AU$55 million penalty is appropriate.

In addition to the fine, Google has signed a court-enforceable undertaking requiring it to remove restrictions on pre-installation and default search engine options from future contracts with Android phone manufacturers and telecommunications operators.

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ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb welcomed the outcome, stressing that anti-competitive conduct directly harms consumers.

“Conduct that restricts competition is illegal in Australia because it ully means less choice, higher costs or worse service for consumers.

“Today’s outcome, along with Telstra, Optus and TPG’s undertakings, have created the potential for millions of Australians to have greater search choice in the future, and for competing search providers to gain meaningful exposure to Australian consumers,” she said.

Cass-Gottlieb also noted that the changes come at a critical time. “Importantly, these changes come at a time when AI search tools are revolutionising how we search for information, creating new competition,” she said.

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Under the new arrangements, Telstra, Optus and TPG are allowed to configure search services on a device-by-device basis, even in ways that may not align with Google’s default settings.

The telcos may also enter into pre-installation agreements with other search providers.

“With AI search tools becoming increasingly available, consumers can experiment with search services on their mobiles,” Cass-Gottlieb said.

The case follows a lengthy ACCC investigation, which began after concerns were raised during the regulator’s Digital Platform Services Inquiry into search defaults and choice screens.

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“Co-operation with the ACCC is encouraged.

“It can avoid the need for protracted and costly litigation and lead to more competition.

“More competition in markets drives economic dynamism, but the reverse is true when markets are not sufficiently competitive,” Cass-Gottlieb said.

She said ACCC remains committed to addressing anti-competitive conduct like this, as well as cartel conduct.

Last year, Telstra, Optus, and rival TPG agreed to court-enforceable undertakings with the ACCC, pledging not to renew or enter into similar arrangements with Google that would limit search engine options.