Major Nikita Nadtochiy (call sign One-Two) has been appointed as acting commander of the Azov regiment, according to the regiment's Telegram news channel. Nadtochy was the commander of the second battalion of the regiment, he was seriously wounded in Mariupol and was evacuated by helicopter.

According to Radio Liberty Ukraine, Azov commander Denis Prokopenko temporarily handed over leadership to Nadtochiy until his return. Former Azov commander Maxim Zhorin said that Nadtochiy's mission is to assemble and train the regiment to continue combat missions. He is quoted by the Politika strany Telegram channel.

Earlier, Zhorin said that the Ukrainian side, as a result of two exchanges, managed to return 220 bodies of Azovstal defenders. “The bodies of 220 dead are already in Kyiv, about a third are Azov, the identification process is underway,” he said, adding that the identification could take several months. Zhorin also noted that almost the same number of bodies of the dead have yet to be returned: they are still in Mariupol.

In May, two and a half thousand Ukrainian soldiers who defended Azovstal surrendered. On June 8, the TASS agency reported that more than a thousand of them were sent to Russia for investigative actions.