A man who is accused of killing a Democratic state lawmaker and her husband, and injuring another state lawmaker and his wife, allegedly attempted to kill two other state lawmakers, Minnesota officials said on Monday.

Vance Luther Boelter, 57, who is charged with fatally shooting Melissa Hortman, a Minnesota Democrat, and her husband, Mark, visited the homes of three other state lawmakers in "truly chilling" attacks, US Attorney Joseph H Thompson said.

Mr Boelter, who police said researched the victims and their families beforehand, allegedly had planned for a larger scale attack, which police thwarted.

He appeared in court on Monday afternoon to face six federal charges, and possibly the death penalty, if he is found guilty.

Mr Boelter was wearing an orange jumpsuit when he arrived in court in St. Paul on Monday afternoon. He said he cannot afford a lawyer and will have a federal defence lawyer.

At the brief hearing, Mr Boelter said he has seven cars, $20,000-30,000 in savings and makes about $540 per week.

At a press conference on Monday officials walked through the early hours of Saturday morning in the suburbs of Minneapolis when the Hortmans were killed, and John Hoffman, a Minnesota state senator, and his wife, Yvette Hoffman, were shot multiple times.

They also announced that Mr Boelter faces six federal charges, some of which make him eligible for the death penalty. At the federal level, he faces two counts of stalking, two counts of murder, and two firearms-related charges.

Separately, at the state level Mr Boelter is charged with two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of attempted second-degree murder at the state level.

Thompson said that Mr Boelter arrived at the Hoffman home disguised as a police officer in a large black car with emergency lights on the vehicle. Mr Boelter was wearing a "hyper realistic silicon mask" when he rang the doorbell and shouted "this is the police, open the door".

Thompson said authorities have a clear picture of what happened because the Hoffmans have a security camera outside their front door.

When the Hoffmans opened the door, Mr Boelter shined a flashlight at the couple. Mr Boelter told the couple there was a shooting reported in the house and lowered his flashlight, Thompson said. The couple then realized he was not a police officer.

After they attempted to push him out, he allegedly fired at the couple multiple times, Thompson said, then fled the scene and the couple's daughter Hope called 911.

Yvette Hoffman was shot eight times and John Hoffman was shot nine times. Both remain in hospital, though Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has said they are expected to make a full recovery.

After allegedly shooting the Hoffmans, Mr Boelter drove to another state representative's home and rang the doorbell there, Thompson said.

That state representative was not home, Thompson said, noting that she and her family were on vacation. Authorities did not reveal her name.

He then drove to a third lawmaker's home, allegedly targeting them, Thompson said. Officials did not reveal the name of that state lawmaker, either.

Thompson said an officer pulled up next to Mr Boelter in his vehicle and assumed he was a police officer, dispatched to the scene to perform a wellness check on that lawmaker.

When the officer asked Mr Boelter what he was doing, he simply stared straight ahead, Thompson said, and Mr Boelter went on to the Hortman residence.

• What we know about the Minnesota shootings
• Minnesota assassination survivor and husband shot 17 times

He is accused of arriving at the Hortman home, and allegedly shooting and killing Melissa and Mark Hortman. Police said they found him at that residence and engaged fire before Mr Boelter fled.

After he fled, police embarked on a two-day search for Mr Boelter before finding him late Sunday night in a wooded rural area west of Minneapolis, where he surrendered peacefully, eventually crawling towards officers, police said.

Thompson said Mr Boelter had "planned his attack carefully".

"He conducted surveillance of their homes and took notes about the location of their homes," he said of Boelter.

Upon finding his car, officials discovered five more firearms including assault-style rifles, large quantities of ammunition and a list of more than 45 Minnesota state and federal elected officials, including Melissa Hortman.

Mark Bruley, police chief from Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, said the officers who arrived at the Hortman home "foiled" a larger plan. They "essentially took (Mr Boelter's) vehicle away from him, which involved all his maps, all his names, all his weaponry", Mr Bruley said.

"I would be very scared what it would look like over the next few hours ahead had we not done that," he said.

"It's a chilling attack on our democracy, on our way of life," Thompson said at the Monday press conference. "It's only the most recent example of violent political extremism in this country, and that's a trend that's been increasing over in recent years, and that's unfortunate.

I hope it is a wake up call to everyone that people can disagree with you without being evil or needing to be killed or hurt."

Mr Boelter is scheduled to return to court for his next hearing 27 June.

At least 22 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli gunfire near aid distribution sites operated by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told the BBC that it was examining the reports.

Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed trying to get food from the GHF sites, opened by Israel after it partially lifted a three-month blockade which the UN said had pushed the Gazan population to the brink of starvation.

UN human rights chief Volker Turk said: "Israel's means and methods of warfare are inflicting horrifying, unconscionable suffering on Palestinians in Gaza."

Addressing the UN Human Rights Council on Monday, he accused Israel of weaponising food and repeated his call for a full investigation into the attacks near the sites. UN agencies have refused to work with the GHF.

On several previous occasions the IDF has acknowledged that its troops opened fire near aid sites.

The health ministry said 20 were killed on Monday at the GHF centre at al-Alam in the southern city of Rafah, while rescuers reported two killed at a GHF site in the central Netzarim corridor.

Many of those killed and injured at al-Alam were taken to Nasser hospital in nearby Khan Younis, where relatives gathered. Many were buried in the hours after their arrival, in line with Islamic tradition.

Ahmed Alfara, a doctor at the hospital, told the Reuters news agency that the distribution system had failed "100%".

"No one can get that distribution, that aid, no one can get it," he said.

"We have to recognise that [UN humanitarian agency] Unrwa and NGOs must again get that distribution and try to redistribute it for the Palestinian people."

He reported that many of the casualties on Monday had suffered gunshot wounds, including to the head.

Ahmed Fayad, who attempted to get food from the GHF site on Monday, described the GHF operation as a "trap".

"We went there thinking we would get aid to feed our children, but it turned out to be a trap, a killing. I advise everyone: don't go there," he told Reuters.

Al-Alam has been the scene of several similar deadly incidents since the new Israeli-backed food distribution system began operating.

Before Monday's incident, the health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip said that at least 300 people had been killed and more than 2,600 wounded near aid distribution sites since the GHF began operations in Gaza on 26 May.

The IDF has contested the death toll and said Hamas had caused much of the violence.

• Searching for answers about US-backed aid agency in Gaza

Israel does not allow international news organisations including the BBC into Gaza, making verifying what is happening in the territory difficult.

It has been 20 months since Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led cross-border attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 55,297 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's health ministry.

Long queues at petrol stations and bakeries. Long lines of cars trying to escape the capital. And long, frightening nights.

Residents of Tehran - still shocked by Israel's sudden attack on Iran in the early hours of Friday morning - speak of fear and confusion, a feeling of helplessness and conflicting emotions.

"We haven't slept for nights," a 21-year-old music student told me over an encrypted social media app.

"Everyone is leaving but I'm not. My dad says it's more honourable to die in your own house than to run away."

'Donya' - she doesn't want to reveal her real name - is one of many Iranians now caught in a war between a regime she loathes and Israel, whose destructive power in Gaza she has witnessed on screen from afar.

"I really don't want my beautiful Tehran to turn into Gaza," she said.

• Follow live updates on this story
• What we know as conflict intensifies
• 'It's heavy on the heart': Israelis survey damage in city hit by Iranian missile
• What are the worst-case scenarios?
• Israel's endgame may be regime change in Iran - but it's a gamble

As for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's call on Iranians to rise up against their clerical leadership, she has a firm response.

"We don't want Israel to save us. No foreign country ever cared for Iran," she said. "We also don't want the Islamic Republic."

Another woman said that at first she had felt a "strange excitement" to see Israel kill Iranian military officials so powerful that she thought they would live for ever.

"Suddenly that image of power was shattered," she told BBC Persian.

"But from the second day, when I heard that regular people - people I didn't know, people like me - had also been killed, I started to feel sorrow, fear and sadness."

And she said her sadness turned to anger when she heard that the South Pars gas field had been hit, fearing that Israel was trying to turn Iran "into ruins".

For the first time in her life, she said, she has started to prepare for the idea of dying.

More than 220 people - many of them women and children - have been killed since Friday, according to the Iranian authorities.

Israeli authorities say Iranian missiles have killed at least 24 people in Israel over the same period.

Unlike in Israel, there are no warnings of imminent attacks in Iran, and no shelters to run to.

Even some supporters of the regime are reported to be upset that its much-vaunted defences have been so thoroughly exposed.

And, among many Iranians, distrust in the authorities runs deep.

Donya used to defy the regime and its strict dress code by going out with her hair uncovered.

Now, with her university exams postponed until next week, she's staying at home.

"I get so terrified at night," she said. "I take some pills to help me relax and try to sleep."

The Iranian government has suggested that people shelter in mosques and metro stations.

But that is hard, when the explosions seem to come out of nowhere.

"Tehran is a big city and yet every neighbourhood has been somehow affected by the damage," another young woman told BBC Persian.

"For now, all we do is check the news every hour and call the friends and relatives whose neighbourhood has been hit to make sure they are still alive."

She and her family have now left their home to stay in an area where there are no known government buildings.

But you never know, in a country like Iran, who may be living next to you.

The Israeli assault has divided Iranians, she said, with some celebrating the regime's losses, while others are angry at those cheering Israel on.

Many Iranians keep changing their minds about what they think. Divisions are bitter, even among some families.

"The situation feels like the first hours after the Titanic hit the iceberg," the woman said.

"Some people were trying to escape, some were saying it wasn't a big deal, and others kept dancing."

She has always protested against Iran's clerical rulers, she told the BBC, but sees what Netanyahu is doing to her country as "inexcusable".

"Everyone's life, whether they supported the attacks or not, has been changed forever.

"Most Iranians, even those who oppose the government, have now realised that freedom and human rights don't come from Israeli bombs falling on cities where defenceless civilians live."

She added: "Most of us are scared and worried about what's coming next. We've packed bags with first aid supplies, food, and water, just in case things get worse."

Israel says the Iranian armed forces have deliberately placed their command centres and weapons inside civilian buildings and areas.

Members of Iran's large diaspora are also worried.

"It's hard to convey what it's like to be an Iranian right now," says Dorreh Khatibi-Hill, a Leeds-based women's rights activist and researcher who is in touch with family, friends and other anti-regime activists.

"You're happy that members of the regime - who have been torturing and murdering people - are being taken out.

"But we know that civilians are dying. This is a devastating humanitarian disaster."

And Iranians are not being given accurate information on what is happening, she says.

"The main person in Iran - the supreme leader - is still alive while Iranians are fleeing for their lives," she adds.

"No one wants Iran to turn into another Iraq, Syria or Afghanistan. None of us wants this war. We don't want the regime either."

Long queues at petrol stations and bakeries. Long lines of cars trying to escape the capital. And long, frightening nights.

Residents of Tehran - still shocked by Israel's sudden attack on Iran in the early hours of Friday morning - speak of fear and confusion, a feeling of helplessness and conflicting emotions.

"We haven't slept for nights," a 21-year-old music student told me over an encrypted social media app.

"Everyone is leaving but I'm not. My dad says it's more honourable to die in your own house than to run away."

'Donya' - she doesn't want to reveal her real name - is one of many Iranians now caught in a war between a regime she loathes and Israel, whose destructive power in Gaza she has witnessed on screen from afar.

"I really don't want my beautiful Tehran to turn into Gaza," she said.

• Follow live updates on this story
• What we know as conflict intensifies
• 'It's heavy on the heart': Israelis survey damage in city hit by Iranian missile
• What are the worst-case scenarios?
• Israel's endgame may be regime change in Iran - but it's a gamble

As for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's call on Iranians to rise up against their clerical leadership, she has a firm response.

"We don't want Israel to save us. No foreign country ever cared for Iran," she said. "We also don't want the Islamic Republic."

Another woman said that at first she had felt a "strange excitement" to see Israel kill Iranian military officials so powerful that she thought they would live for ever.

"Suddenly that image of power was shattered," she told BBC Persian.

"But from the second day, when I heard that regular people - people I didn't know, people like me - had also been killed, I started to feel sorrow, fear and sadness."

And she said her sadness turned to anger when she heard that the South Pars gas field had been hit, fearing that Israel was trying to turn Iran "into ruins".

For the first time in her life, she said, she has started to prepare for the idea of dying.

More than 220 people - many of them women and children - have been killed since Friday, according to the Iranian authorities.

Israeli authorities say Iranian missiles have killed at least 24 people in Israel over the same period.

Unlike in Israel, there are no warnings of imminent attacks in Iran, and no shelters to run to.

Even some supporters of the regime are reported to be upset that its much-vaunted defences have been so thoroughly exposed.

And, among many Iranians, distrust in the authorities runs deep.

Donya used to defy the regime and its strict dress code by going out with her hair uncovered.

Now, with her university exams postponed until next week, she's staying at home.

"I get so terrified at night," she said. "I take some pills to help me relax and try to sleep."

The Iranian government has suggested that people shelter in mosques and metro stations.

But that is hard, when the explosions seem to come out of nowhere.

"Tehran is a big city and yet every neighbourhood has been somehow affected by the damage," another young woman told BBC Persian.

"For now, all we do is check the news every hour and call the friends and relatives whose neighbourhood has been hit to make sure they are still alive."

She and her family have now left their home to stay in an area where there are no known government buildings.

But you never know, in a country like Iran, who may be living next to you.

The Israeli assault has divided Iranians, she said, with some celebrating the regime's losses, while others are angry at those cheering Israel on.

Many Iranians keep changing their minds about what they think. Divisions are bitter, even among some families.

"The situation feels like the first hours after the Titanic hit the iceberg," the woman said.

"Some people were trying to escape, some were saying it wasn't a big deal, and others kept dancing."

She has always protested against Iran's clerical rulers, she told the BBC, but sees what Netanyahu is doing to her country as "inexcusable".

"Everyone's life, whether they supported the attacks or not, has been changed forever.

"Most Iranians, even those who oppose the government, have now realised that freedom and human rights don't come from Israeli bombs falling on cities where defenceless civilians live."

She added: "Most of us are scared and worried about what's coming next. We've packed bags with first aid supplies, food, and water, just in case things get worse."

Israel says the Iranian armed forces have deliberately placed their command centres and weapons inside civilian buildings and areas.

Members of Iran's large diaspora are also worried.

"It's hard to convey what it's like to be an Iranian right now," says Dorreh Khatibi-Hill, a Leeds-based women's rights activist and researcher who is in touch with family, friends and other anti-regime activists.

"You're happy that members of the regime - who have been torturing and murdering people - are being taken out.

"But we know that civilians are dying. This is a devastating humanitarian disaster."

And Iranians are not being given accurate information on what is happening, she says.

"The main person in Iran - the supreme leader - is still alive while Iranians are fleeing for their lives," she adds.

"No one wants Iran to turn into another Iraq, Syria or Afghanistan. None of us wants this war. We don't want the regime either."

The ethnicity of people involved in grooming gangs has been "shied away from" by authorities, according to a new report by Baroness Louise Casey.

The finding comes after the peer was tasked with producing an audit on the nature and scale of group-based child sexual abuse in England and Wales.

The report said ethnicity data is not recorded for two-thirds of grooming gang perpetrators, meaning it is not robust enough to support conclusions about offenders at a national level.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper apologised to victims as she presented the findings to MPs and announced a new national inquiry into grooming gangs.

In the report, Baroness Casey said: "We as a society owe these women a debt.

"They should never have been allowed to have suffered the appalling abuse and violence they went through as children," she added.

On the question of ethnicity, the report said: "We found that the ethnicity of perpetrators is shied away from and is still not recorded for two-thirds of perpetrators, so we are unable to provide any accurate assessment from the nationally collected data".

However, it added that at a local level for three police forces - Greater Manchester, South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire - there was enough evidence to show a "disproportionate numbers of men from Asian ethnic backgrounds amongst suspects for group-based child sexual exploitation".

Cooper said: "Ignoring the issues, not examining and exposing them to the light, allows the criminality and depravity of a minority of men to be used to marginalise whole communities."

Lady Casey later said the data should be investigated as it was "only helping the bad people" not to give a full picture of the situation, adding: "You're doing a disservice to two sets of population, the Pakistani and Asian heritage community, and victims."

The report criticised the "failure" of the authorities to "understand" the nature and scale of the problem to date.

"If we'd got this right years ago - seeing these girls as children raped rather than 'wayward teenagers' or collaborators in their abuse, collecting ethnicity data, and acknowledging as a system that we did not do a good enough job - then I doubt we'd be in this place now," the report stated.

Cooper told the Commons the government would follow all 12 of the report's recommendations, including suggestions to:

• Ensure adults who engage in penetrative sex with a child under 16 "face the most serious charge of rape" instead of lesser charges
• Launch a new national criminal operation overseen by the National Crime Agency (NCA) to tackle grooming gangs and hold a national inquiry that co-ordinates targeted local investigations into abuse
• Review the criminal convictions of victims of child sexual exploitation and quashing any convictions where the government finds victims were criminalised instead of protected
• Make the collection of ethnicity and nationality data for all suspects in child sexual abuse and criminal exploitation cases mandatory
• Commission research into the drivers for group-based child sexual exploitation, including the role of social media, cultural factors and group dynamics
• Bring in more rigorous standards for the licensing and regulation of taxi drivers following cases of them being used to traffic victims

Cooper said: "To the victims and survivors of sexual exploitation and grooming gangs, on behalf of this and past governments, and the many public authorities who let you down, I want to reiterate an unequivocal apology for the unimaginable pain and suffering that you have suffered, and the failure of our country's institutions through decades to prevent that harm and keep you safe."

She added: "Baroness Casey's first recommendation is we must see children as children. She concludes too many grooming cases have been dropped or downgraded from rape to lesser charges because a 13 to 15-year-old is perceived to have been in love with or had consented to sex with the perpetrator."

The report is focused on "group-based child exploitation" by grooming gangs, a crime which is defined as involving "multiple perpetrators coercing, manipulating and deceiving children into sex, to create an illusion of consent".

Before the publication of the report, the Home Office confirmed that a nationwide policing operation to bring grooming gang members to justice would be led by the NCA.

According to the Home Office, the NCA will work in partnership with police forces to investigate cases that "were not progressed through the criminal justice system" in the past.

Downing Street has said the full national statutory inquiry into grooming gangs would look "specifically at how young girls were failed so badly by different agencies on a local level".

A national statutory inquiry is an investigation set up by the government to respond to events of major public concern - in this case grooming gangs - that has legal powers to compel witnesses to give evidence.

The family of three Britons who died in the Air India plane crash are calling on the UK government to provide more support in India.

Akeel Nanabawa, Hannaa Vorajee and Sara Nanabawa, aged four, were returning home to Gloucester when their plane ploughed into a residential area in Ahmedabad on Thursday.

Akeel's brother, Hamzah, said they have not received his body despite giving DNA and waiting three days. A family spokesperson added: "We're not asking for miracles – we're asking for presence, for compassion, for action. Right now, we feel utterly abandoned."

A Foreign Office spokesperson said there is an advice helpline and a support centre has been set up near the airport.

The plane was carrying 242 people when it crashed shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad airport, in western India, including 53 Britons.

The sole surviving passenger was Briton Vishwash Kumar Ramesh.

Mr Nanabawa said: "I need the UK government to come out by themselves, if they've given up all this big talk over in the UK, come out here and help."

He added there is no UK leadership in India, no medical team and no crisis professionals stationed at the hospital.

"No one from UK has even reached out to me, my family, to my sister in law's family. Nobody has. So you're saying no one from the foreign office in the UK or here reached out to us at all, nobody," Mr Nanabawa said.

"They haven't done anything for us [or] what we wanted. You have to understand, this is the highest, highest incident in the UK's history of 53 lives, and we are now on day four."

He added: "All I want is you guys to come and help and help my brother, my sister in law, my niece and all the other 53 people that were on that plane.

"Come and help them, please. Because they are grieving. They are hurt. They haven't got anybody. They [haven't got any] structure, no structure at all."

UK air accident investigators are already in India and are assisting the Indian authorities, and UK forensic experts are there to support, a Foreign Office spokeswoman said.

She added: "Our staff continue to work around the clock in the UK and India to support the families and loved ones of all those impacted by the crash.

"We have set up a Reception Centre at the Ummed Hotel, near the Ahmedabad airport, and have a dedicated helpline to provide support and advice for the families and friends of British nationals."

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A 22-year-old nursery worker has been convicted of abusing 21 babies, including kicking one little boy in the face and stepping on his shoulder.

Roksana Lecka, from Hounslow, west London, admitted seven counts of cruelty to a person under the age of 16 and was found guilty of another 14 by a jury at Kingston Crown Court, the Metropolitan Police said.

Her crimes were discovered in June last year after she was sent home for pinching a number of children and appearing "flustered" at the Riverside Nursery in Twickenham, south-west London, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.

Solicitor Jemma Till from Irwin Mitchell said the families involved had been "traumatised".

Detectives from the Met Police went through CCTV from the nursery that showed her pinching and scratching children under their clothes on their arms, legs and stomachs.

She pinched several children dozens of times in the course of one day, causing them to cry and flinch away from her, the CPS said.

In one incident she kicked a little boy in the face several times. She was also seen to push babies headfirst over cots and cover a toddler's mouth when he started to cry.

The Metropolitan Police said she had abused children at two nurseries between October 2023 and June 2024 - one of the counts related to Little Munchkins in Hounslow, with the remainder linked to the Riverside Nursery in Twickenham, which has since closed.

Det Sgt Geoff Boye said: "Footage showed Lecka carrying out multiple assaults on the children in her care which included repeatedly pinching and grabbing children, dropping babies into their cots and on one occasion, she delivered several kicks to a young boy to the face and stepped on his shoulder."

'Exceptional cruelty'

Lecka told police she smoked cannabis before her shifts, and at one point was seen vaping a metre away from a young baby.

Det Insp Sian Hutchings said: "These families left their children in Lecka's care, trusting her to protect their children as well as the other staff at the nurseries clearly did.

"The footage of her offences against defenceless children was disturbing.

"I would like to praise the strength of the victims' families who have had to sit in court and watch footage of the abuse which Lecka inflicted on their children."

Lecka worked at Riverside Nursery between January and June 2024, with a number of parents reporting unusual injuries and bruising in March and May that year.

Senior crown prosecutor Gemma Burns said Lecka had "shown exceptional cruelty" to the babies.

"No parent should have to fear leaving their child in the care of professionals, but the sheer scale of her abuse is staggering," she added.

She will be sentenced at Kingston Crown Court on 26 September.

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Ukraine and Russia have completed an exchange of dead bodies - the final stage of a deal to bring home fallen soldiers.

Kyiv said Moscow handed over 1,245 bodies on Monday, bringing the total to 6,057 in the past few days. It said it was now verifying whether all the bodies were indeed of Ukrainian soldiers.

Russia put 6,060 the overall number of bodies transferred to Ukraine. It also said 78 bodies of Russian soldiers had been repatriated.

Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko accused Russia of "deliberately complicating" the identification process. "Bodies are returned in an extremely mutilated state, parts of [the same] bodies are in different bags," he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The latest exchange took place at an undisclosed location on Monday. The bodies in white bags were brought in refrigerator lorries.

Red Cross members monitored the process.

In a statement, Ukraine's government agency co-ordinating the repatriation said that "another 1,245 bodies were returned to Ukraine".

It said the identification process and "all the necessary examinations" would be carried out by Ukrainian law enforcement experts.

Meanwhile, the Russian defence ministry said in a statement that 1,248 bodies of Ukrainian soldiers had been handed over to Kyiv.

That figure was questioned by Klymenko, who said that Ukraine had "received bodies of Russian soldiers mixed with those of Ukrainians" during the earlier exchanges.

In its statement, the Russian defence ministry also said it had received the bodies of 51 killed Russian soldiers on Monday, taking the total to 78.

The ministry added it was ready to hand over another 2,239 bodies of Ukrainian soldiers.

The overall disparity between the two sides may be due to the fact that, of late, Russia has been making territorial gains, so would have been able to recover many of its own soldiers killed in fighting.

Trust between the two sides is extremely low, even when it comes to the dead.

The Red Cross declined to say how many bodies had been handed over by each side.

"It's been up to them really to figure out the details, to discuss directly and determine where this takes place, when, and which human remains to be part of that process," ICRC spokesman Pat Griffiths told the BBC.

The deal to repatriate the bodies and also exchange prisoners of war was agreed at peace talks between Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul, Turkey, earlier this month.

Israel's conflict with Iran may look like a mismatch on paper - a nation of nine million people taking on a giant of the Middle East, home to 88 million.

But Israel's formidable and sophisticated military forces - with an arsenal largely, but not exclusively, provided by the United States - are enabling it to overpower a much larger enemy.

The BBC looks at the military balance in the latest war in the Middle East.

What has Israel achieved so far?

Israel already says it has gained control over the skies over Tehran. It has been a complete mismatch in the air - with no sign of Iran's few ageing fighter jets even getting off the ground.

Israel's fleet of modern, US-made fighters have been able to drop guided bombs from short range - with apparently little concern of being shot down.

Much of the threat from Iran's air defences was destroyed in an earlier Israeli strike in October - using longer range "stand-off" weapons to target Iran's S300 missile systems.

In recent days Israel's air force has continued to target ground-based radar and launchers. Even before the attack got under way, Israel had intelligence operatives inside Iran preparing to disrupt its response.

Mossad agents used drones smuggled into the country to target Iran's remaining air defence systems.

Israeli attacks also wiped out many in Iran's top level of command, which would have also undermined Iran's response.

Is Iran still able to strike back?

Before Israel began its attacks, Iran had what the US described as the "largest ballistic missile arsenal" in the Middle East.

Estimates vary from between 2,000 to 3,000. Some of those, and the factories in which they were produced, have already been hit by Israel.

But Tehran has still been able to fire wave after wave into Israel, and some missiles have penetrated its sophisticated air defences.

The Israeli military says it has now destroyed a third of Iran's surface to surface launchers. But while Iran's missile programme will have been degraded, it has not been destroyed. It remains the greatest direct threat to Israel.

And despite Israel's attacks, Iran still has many short range air defence missiles.

Justin Bronk, of the defence think tank Rusi, said that while Israel may now be able to claim air superiority over Tehran, it has still not achieved air dominance and the threat of short range missiles remain.

Does Iran have allies - and what could they do?

Iran has for years invested in Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon with military advice, weapons and technology.

But their ability to threaten Israel on its frontiers has been greatly diminished by Israeli action over the last two years: Hamas has been all but destroyed in Gaza, and Hezbollah's potency reduced to the point where it has not responded to Israel's attack on its paymaster.

The Houthis, while more distant in Yemen, have still been able to fire the occasional salvo of missiles into Israel.

They survived a sustained US bombing campaign earlier this year, and were able to bring down several US Reaper drones with short range ground-to-air missiles.

Could other countries be dragged in?

Iran has the ability to strike western interests in the region. Iranian-backed militant groups in Iraq have targeted western military bases in the region. The US and the UK have been preparing for the worst.

There are still around 100 UK personnel based in Baghdad alongside the US military. Their safety is one reason why Kier Starmer, the British prime minister, recently ordered additional RAF Typhoon jets to Cyprus.

US and UK military naval personnel and ships are also stationed in Bahrain. The longer this war goes on the greater the risk for western forces in the region.

Iran still has the ability to disrupt or choke one of the world's main shipping lanes in the Straight of Hormuz. It may not currently seem wise for Tehran to widen the conflict, but it could do so if it chooses.

Can Israel achieve its goals?

Israel has the upper hand, but the continuation of its military campaign is still largely dependent on US backing.

It receives billions of dollars of US military aid each year. Most of the weapons being fired from their American-made jets have been flown in from the US. Even some of the interceptor missiles for its own Iron Dome air defences are made in the US.

The "bunker busting" bombs Israel has been using to target Iran's underground nuclear programme are mostly US-supplied. Donald Trump, the US president, has so far been willing to back their use, though it is reported that he vetoed Israeli plans to target Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei.

Nor has the US given Israel access to the one weapon that would probably be needed to penetrate Iran's underground nuclear complex at Fordow - the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, a 30,000lb (13,600kg) bomb, which also can only be delivered by US B2 strategic bombers.

Even with continuing US military support there will be limits to what Israel can achieve. Air power may set back Iran's nuclear programme, but it won't destroy it. Israeli hopes of toppling the Iranian regime seem highly unlikely.

Air campaigns can create fear and chaos and rubble. But think of Libya in 2011, or Israel's continuing assault on Gaza: they rarely result in a clear-cut victory.