The search for fallen soldiers in Ukraine | Focus on Europe

ban heix was killed two years ago his mother Victoria still remembers the afternoon when a voice on the phone told her that her son had died in combat fighting for Ukraine it was all just so strange such a strange day I took a few sedatives and in the evening I just fell asleep I lay down and I slept through the night it’s the day after that’s truly awful you wake up and you don’t want to admit it’s true you think to yourself I must have dreamt it this is all just a terrible dream it took more than a year before Victoria hepix was able to bury her son here in his hometown of har it’s an important place for her to be able to grieve her younger son yaroslav was also killed at the front but his remains have not been found I so hope that he will still be found at bogden’s burial we tried to keep a plot free next to him it would be nice if they were both buried here they were always so close 3 hours from hariv close to the front vmir and his team spend their days searching for fallen soldiers their unit specializes in recovering the dead so that their relatives can pay their last respects it’s a dangerous job as the former former battlefields are often scattered with mines watch out explosion the Russians often leave behind surprises like that they’re even under dead bodies estimates put the death toll at well over 100,000 but the figures cannot be verified many are still lying somewhere in the fields of eastern Ukraine it doesn’t take long before Vladimir’s team finds something my experience tells me these are not human bones the farmers here had a lot of chickens cows and pigs on their Farms when they fled they had to leave them behind a little further south closer to the combat zone another team lays out what they brought back from a search operation they found 10 corpses in a forested area now they have to identify the bodies most of which are severely disfigured we have a notebook with some phone numbers in it this is probably the contact information for his daughter this should make it easier to confirm his identity even the smallest physical remains can be enough to identify Ukrainian soldiers they matched to a database of DNA samples we found tiny pieces of fingers teeth and Bone fragments in the feces of animals if there’s even a chance to identify a person we leave no stone unturned every Soldier should be brought back to their families Alexi says that some of the deceased here are probably Russians the team also tries identifying the bodies to the best of their ability they kill us but we remain human every person should be buried with dignity after hours of searching vomir and his team have come across more bones in a remote field based on the location vmir concludes that these are also Russian bodies he hopes their remains can be handed over later during an exchange of Fallen Soldiers we keep them safe at some point a special unit will take care of handing over the bodies Victoria hepix is hoping for such a Handover her youngest son was probably killed in mariole on Russian occupied territory only an exchange of remains would allow her to bury him we need to seize any opportunity exchange the dead or just give back remains without getting anything in return it’s important for every mother to be able to mourn at a grave but despite all the efforts of search teams the largest burial site of Ukrainian soldiers is likely not here in the cemeter but in the vast fields of eastern Ukraine

Special Ukrainian military units are searching for the bodies of fallen Ukrainian and Russian soldiers so that their families can bury them and have a place to mourn.

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39 comments

  3. Ukrainian commanders take the salaries of the fallen soldiers and put it in their pockets. Then when roles are checked the commanders say, "they just ran away" and the government doesn't have to pay survivor benefits to the families. Corruption goes all the way down the ranks. Sadly families have no place to remember the fallen.

  5. May they all have found the peace that they fought so valiantly for. May God bless and watch over these young people. Slava Ukraine 🇺🇦 God bless all that have given so much for freedom❤️🇺🇲 🙏✝️🙏❤️🇺🇲

  12. Their son is a hero who died fighting for Ukraine's freedom. Unfortunately, many democratic countries had to go through the same experience. What is wrong with mankind?

  22. Are you not saying Ukraine is winning the war? Only few people has been killed and a lot of Russians are dying in the war?

  24. American Senator Lindsey Graham said, "this is the best money we have ever spent" with "no Americans death" "where Russians are dying."

    The fact is, both the Russians and Ukrainians "are dying ", and every death is painful. My condolences for Ukrainian fallen soldiers from Bangladesh ♥️🇧🇩♥️

  31. You lost your family because of NATO & Its puppet zhelensky. Ukrainion are fighting for USA & EUROPE. Not for Ukraine or its people.

  35. This war had taught me that western democracy is an illusion. Look how people are forced to stay, fight and die for men oceans away. In the name of the word "democracy"

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