The body of an American man killed in August while fighting alongside the Ukrainian military has been returned to Ukrainian custody by the Russian military.
A CNN team witnessed the transfer in the Zaporizhzhia region on Wednesday. The American is 24-year-old Joshua Jones, who was killed in August. The US State Department has informed Jones’ family about the body’s return, Jones’ father Jeff Jones told CNN on Wednesday. The transfer took place just north of Vasylivka, in the Zaporizhzhia region, between Ukrainian and Russian-controlled Ukraine.
Jones’ remains were found in the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic , a Russian-backed, self-declared republic that has governed a breakaway portion of Ukraine’s Donetsk region since 2014. DPR officials said in August that Jones’ body had been transferred to a mortuary in the region, and that they were ready to discuss a transfer of his remains. Jones became one of a number of Americans who have been captured or killed in Ukraine since the outbreak of war in February.