the sort of area between russian and ukrainian territory. the two sides had agreed on a two hour cease fire, so there was a narrow window of time that we had to move in and out during which there was no shelling which is pretty unusual in that area along that contact line in zaporizhzhia. and essentially at a certain point we had to stay back a little bit and an ambulance went with further down the road where the russians passed the body of joshua jones to the ukrainians. they then brought him down towards us, they took the body out. those two lawmakers who i mentioned, ukrainian lawmaker, went as side to identify the body. they had been in discussions with the russian side and already exchanged photographs to be sure that was it the body of i don t joshua jones. there were certain tattoos and markings that they used to identify him. and he was driven in to the city of zaporizhzhia and he will move on to kyiv and from there the hope is that as soon as possible he will be repa
to ask mr. jones, but just what the process has been like for the family as they have worked ge this point. reporter: i mean, they have been working tirelessly talking to a number of different organizations, from international organizations, the red cross, and various ukrainian organizations to lobby the russian side to try to come to some kind of consensus. and to ultimately hand over the remains of joshua jones. and there are also other foreign nationals who have been killed feeding with the ukrainians against russian forces. there are other bodies that have not yet been repatriated. so i think that the hope is that is this an initial step and that this will lead to further gestures of good will and every
alongside ukrainian troops. a cnn team was there to witness the transfer. this happened in the zaporizhzhia region. and clarissa ward was there, she is joining us now live. so what more do we know about this american or about what happened? reporter: this is the body of joshua jones, a 24-year-old from memphis, tennessee. who was killed in fighting, fighting with the ukrainians against russian forces in eastern ukraine back in august. his body had not been recovered. and really this was a huge evident on behalf of the ukrainian presidency, on behalf of two ukrainian lawmakers who had been trying now since he was killed in august to get his body back to ukraine and ultimately back to the u.s. so that his family can have closure. we drove in on no man s land,
the sort of area between russian and ukrainian territory. the two sides had agreed on a two hour cease fire, so there was a narrow window of time that we had to move in and out during which there was no shelling which is pretty unusual in that area along that contact line in zaporizhzhia. and essentially at a certain point we had to stay back a little bit and an ambulance went with further down the road where the russians passed the body of joshua jones to the ukrainians. they then brought him down towards us, they took the body out. those two lawmakers who i mentioned, ukrainian lawmaker, went as side to identify the body. they had been in discussions with the russian side and already exchanged photographs to be sure that was it the body of i don t
country understands the importance psychologically in terms of the grieving process of having a body and being able to bury or cremate or whatever your tradition is, but being able to say good-bye in your very personal familial way. so that is the hope. whether or not that transpires remains to be seen about important to remember that it should be seen in the broader context of a number of prisoner swaps that have taken place in recent weeks between ukrainians and russians. just yesterday another couple dozen ukrainians were released as a part of one such swap. absolutely. appreciate the update. politics are getting a lot of attention back here in the u.s. certain days now left until the