More than 26,000 bodies have been returned to Ukraine — many of the dead remain unidentified

More than 26 thousand bodies of the dead have been returned to Ukraine during repatriations, but a significant number of remains have still not been identified. This issue was raised by the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Kyrylo Budanov at a meeting dedicated to identifying fallen Ukrainian soldiers. According to the President of Ukraine.

The meeting took place in the Office of the President on October 2, Friday. Identification issues were considered by the Coordination Council on the Protection of the Rights of War Veterans and Members of Their Families, Families of Deceased Defenders of Ukraine, Prisoners and Missing Persons.

Participants of the meeting outlined obstacles and proposed changes:

• Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi noted that by mid-October all necessary regulatory legal acts should be adopted. Their goal is to accelerate forensic medical examinations in the regions and improve this work.
• The Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, emphasized that difficulties conducting DNA examinations complicate the identification of the deceased.
• Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Ihor Klymenko proposed creating an interagency working group under the NSDC to oversee issues of identifying bodies of the deceased. It should include teams that will work in the regions. Another of his proposals is separate forensic medical examination bureaus that will handle body identification.

Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets also drew attention to violations in certain institutions:

“In some cases, forensic medical examination bureaus stored bodies improperly, violated sanitary norms and did not involve forensic criminalists in the analysis.”

Summing up the discussion, Kyrylo Budanov said:

“We have formed a concrete algorithm of actions. An interagency group will be created to consider problematic issues related to identification of the deceased, we will review the work of forensic medical examination bureaus, especially in the regions.”

According to him, international organizations will be involved in conducting DNA examinations.

In September, as a result of repatriation measures, 252 bodies of deceased citizens were returned to Ukraine, among them servicemen.

Source

Previously we wrote:

• Instead of names, only codes for now: 76 unknown defenders buried in Mykolaiv
• The Ministry of Internal Affairs launched an online service to identify missing persons by tattoos
• He went to warm up and stayed forever: the body in the heating pipe of Korabelnyi district still has not been identified
• During the latest exchanges, Russia, instead of bodies of dead Ukrainians, handed over bodies of some of its own Russians, — Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko.
• “On the shield”: 757 defenders of Ukraine returned home from the front