Ukrainian Ministry of Health discusses number of killed defenders who remain unidentified

Ukraine is attempting to match the remains received as part of exchanges with Russia to the soldiers who have been killed or gone missing during the war. For the most part, experts manage to identify the deceased, but 2-3% of the bodies cannot be identified.

Source: Ihor Kuzin, Deputy Minister of Health and Chief State Sanitary Doctor of Ukraine, in an interview with Ukrainska Pravda.Zhyttia

Details: "The remains are stored at the Bureau of Forensic Medicine until they are identified.

Identification attempts continue to the end, until we prove whose remains these are and are convinced that we have given the body to the family that was supposed to receive it for proper burial," said Kuzin.

The official said that the remains of 2-3% of the killed Ukrainians cannot be identified.

"And these 2-3% are the cases when we cannot get results of a DNA examination, or we have received the results from the deceased, but there are no matches. And this means that either there are no relatives or the relatives have not yet submitted their DNA," says Ihor Kuzin.

Unidentified bodies are stored until a match with a relative is made. The remains are stored in body fridges throughout the country. The identification process is a long process, sometimes lasting more than a year.

"After one year of storage, such bodies are sometimes buried, but at the same time, unidentified bodies are buried in such a way that a reburial permit can be issued promptly if the family is found.

These are not some kind of mass graves where it is impossible to tell one person from another. This is a cemetery, but specifically for unidentified persons, to whom we assign a number, and with the permission of the investigating authorities, we can then return the remains for proper burial," says Kuzin.

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