During the latest stage of repatriation, Ukraine received 6,060 bodies of the deceased, as reported by Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko during a national telethon on June 18. According to the Minister, the process of identifying the bodies remains complex, as one package may contain the remains of several individuals.
This is reported by Kyiv24
Challenges of Identification and Detection of Russian Soldiers
Klymenko emphasized that sometimes during the examination, parts of the same body are found in different packages or even in different batches of repatriation. This significantly complicates the work of Ukrainian specialists, who must accurately determine to whom the remains belong. According to the Minister, the enemy deliberately tries to complicate the process, delay time, or accuse the Ukrainian side of unwillingness to conduct identification.
“Each package contains parts of the bodies of one, two, or three individuals. Moreover, we have begun to find during the examination the bodies of the same person in several such packages or different repatriations. This means how meticulous the work of our specialists must be to separate and state that the enemy is trying to do everything to complicate our work, delay time, or accuse us of not wanting to do something.”
In the process of examining the evidence, experts find documents, dog tags, and Russian military uniforms among the remains. However, the presence of such attributes does not guarantee that the deceased belongs to the Russian military, so identification is conducted for each body separately.
Return of Bodies and Duration of Examination
The final identification is carried out by comparing the DNA profiles of relatives of Ukrainian soldiers with samples obtained during the examination. If the collected evidence indicates that the body does not belong to a Ukrainian defender, the remains are handed over to the Russian Federation and the families of the deceased servicemen for burial.
According to Ihor Klymenko’s estimates, full identification of the bodies may take about 13-14 months. To expedite the process, all relevant services, including forensic experts, expert services, and investigators, are working in a three-shift mode.
It is noted that during a recent transfer of bodies, Russia mixed the remains of its servicemen with those of Ukrainians. The final stage of repatriation according to the Istanbul agreements took place on June 16, resulting in Ukraine receiving 6,057 bodies. After that, the examination and identification began.
The head of the Russian delegation in the negotiations in Istanbul, Vladimir Medinsky, reported that 78 bodies of its deceased soldiers were handed over to Russia (previously it was mentioned that 27 bodies were involved). The Ukrainian side does not specify the exact number of bodies handed over to Russia. Instead, the Russian Federation claims that it has conducted identification of all received bodies and is confident that they belong to Ukrainian soldiers.