Advice on finding relatives from Bucha and other cities attacked by Russia

Olena Roshchina – Saturday, 9 April 2022, 16:13

Those who are searching for their relatives in the areas liberated from occupation by Russian troops should contact the police and Bureau of Forensic Medicine with photographs of the missing persons and their own DNA samples. Several Telegram channels have also been created to help find missing people.

Source: ZN.ua, quoting the Bucha District Prosecutor’s Office; Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine

Details: The Prosecutor’s Office recommends that those whose relatives had died in Bucha but their bodies have not yet been found:

1. Submit an application to the Bucha District Police Department, in writing or via the 102 phone line, to register criminal proceedings;
2. Separately, apply for the delivery of the body of the deceased to the Kyiv City Clinical Bureau of Forensic Medicine and to the Kyiv Regional Bureau of Forensic Medical Medicine;
3. If possible, provide DNA samples of the deceased for comparative analysis;
4. Provide the pre-trial investigation body with up-to-date photos of the deceased person to carry out a check among unidentified bodies, as well as provide a detailed description of appearance, special features, vehicles used, mobile communication devices of the deceased.

The Ministry of Digital Transformation also recommends the following services for finding persons that have gone missing during the war:

• Poshuk Znyklyh [Search for Missing Persons] – one of the largest resources for searching for children and adults who have disappeared during the Russian invasion. The Telegram channel is easy to navigate with city name hashtags: https://t.me/poshuk_znyklyh
• Poshuk Ukraina 2022 [Search Ukraine 2022] – Telegram channel for finding people all over Ukraine. To submit a search application, you need to fill out a Google form, which will be sent to volunteers and territorial  defence fighters: https://t.me/poshukukraina2022
• Znaydy Ridnyh [Find Relatives] – Telegram bot created at the initiative of the International Cyber ​​Security Association and other public organisations: https://t.me/Family_Search_bot
• The National Information Bureau search provides information on missing military and civilians, both dead and captured or deported from Ukraine: https://t.me/nib_uncp_bot

There are also chatbots for finding people in selected regions:

• Kharkiv: https://t.me/Nadiia_Kharkiv_bot
• Outskirts of Kyiv and the Kyiv region: https://t.me/findme_kyivobl_bot

In the Hostomel community, such searches are already yielding positive results, the Ministry of Digital Transformation reports.