Russian President Vladimir Putin is personally involved in the search for IDF MIAs in Lebanon, and the effort to return the fallen soldiers to Israel, the ITIM news agency reported late Wednesday.
According to the report, President Putin will share with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu additional information related to the missing IDF soldiers when the two meet Thursday in Moscow.
The body of IDF Sgt. 1st Class Zachary Baumel returned to Israel on Wednesday, and is to be laid to rest in a military ceremony, 37 years after he fell at the Battle of Sultan Yacoub in the 1982 First Lebanon War.
Two other soldiers remain missing after having fallen during that battle – Yehuda Katz and Zvi Feldman – along with missing Israeli Air Force navigator Ron Arad, Mossad agent Eli Cohen, and IDF soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin. The latter two soldiers were killed in battle during the 2014 war with Hamas in Gaza; their bodies were snatched by the terrorists and are still being held hostage in the enclave.