Photo: Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War
It will take up to 14 months to fully identify the bodies of deceased soldiers returned to Ukraine under agreements with Russia reached during the negotiations in Istanbul. Russia has handed over more than 6,000 bodies to Ukraine as part of the repatriation process.
Source: Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko on the national joint 24/7 newscast
Details: “Preliminary assessments from our experts have shown that this [identification of the bodies] will take approximately 13-14 months. All services, including forensic experts and investigators, are working in a three-shift pattern to complete the work as quickly as possible,” Klymenko said.
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Klymenko said that Russia was trying to complicate the process of identifying the fallen soldiers.
“Each body bag may contain body parts from one, two or three people. During the examination, we began to find the body parts of one person in several bags or different repatriations [stages of return – ed.].
The enemy is trying to do everything to complicate the work, drag out the time, or even accuse us of inaction,” Klymenko said.
In addition, experts have found that some of the bodies are returned in Russian military uniforms, along with Russian documents or dog tags. Meanwhile, experts always conduct DNA tests on the deceased to make sure they do not belong to Ukrainian defenders.
If the investigation shows that the Russian Federation has handed over the body of one of its own soldiers, it will be returned.
Background: During negotiations in Istanbul on 2 June, Ukraine and Russia agreed to exchange the bodies of fallen soldiers in a “6,000 for 6,000” format. The repatriation measures were carried out in several stages, the last of which took place on 15 June. In total, the Ukrainian side received the bodies of 6,057 dead soldiers.
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