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The latest developments in Russia’s war on Ukraine. All times EST.
12:02 a.m.: Dozens of families in Central Asia have received the bodies of their loved ones killed in Ukraine fighting alongside Russian forces in the year since Moscow’s full-scale invasion began, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports.
In the past month, at least four families in Kyrgyzstan were told that a relative had died fighting in Ukraine after being recruited in Russian prisons by the mercenary fighting group Wagner.
Kyrgyz authorities say 1,077 Kyrgyz nationals are currently serving prison terms in Russia — mostly on drug-trafficking charges.
There are thousands more from Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and other Central Asian countries imprisoned in Russia, a key destination for migrant workers from those former Soviet republics.