By Olha Chepil | 2025-06-24

KYIV -- In the latest phase of body repatriations, Ukraine has received several thousand fallen soldiers from Russian-occupied territory -- along with Russian bodies mixed in. As morgues fill and forensic labs strain, a new front in the war has opened: the fight to give names back to the dead.

From June 6 to 16, Ukraine conducted five phases of repatriation, recovering a total of 6,057 Ukrainian troops' bodies. The final transfer, involving 1,245 bodies, took place June 16. At that point, officials announced completion of this set of repatriations.

Identification will take a long time, Ivan Stupak, an analyst at the Ukrainian Institute for the Future and former Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) employee, told Kontur.

"Bodies are kept in refrigerators, where there may also be partial remains. Immediate identification is simply impossible," he said.

The Interior Ministry said forensic labs are equipped and specialists are working around the clock. But with each transfer, the process becomes more difficult.

"We understand the families' pain and expectations," Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko wrote on Telegram June 16.

"We're accelerating the identification process as much as possible. But with every large repatriation, it gets harder, and perhaps that is exactly Russia's goal."

A lengthy process

After the bodies are returned, Ukraine begins a process more like a legal investigation than a technical one. Each set of remains undergoes an autopsy, forensic examination and DNA testing. Workers inspect personal items, documents and insignia fragments in hopes of identifying the dead.

"First of all, it's the collection of postmortem DNA samples. It takes a long time because there are many bodies, and it's unclear what condition they've returned in," Olena Belyachkova, coordinator of the groups for families of prisoners of war (POWs) and of missing persons at the Media Initiative for Human Rights, told Kontur.

When Russia returned about 900 bodies per quarter, families often waited eight to nine months for answers, said Belyachkova. With thousands now returned -- and many bodies damaged or recovered in pieces -- the wait may be even longer.

"Repatriation doesn't include name lists. Russia transfers them by the location where they were picked up. Until DNA testing is done, it's impossible to say who exactly was returned," Belyachkova explained.

Russia is actively obstructing the identification process, officials say. The issue is not just the condition of the remains, Klymenko said on Telegram

"This process is already complex and lengthy," he said on June 16. "And Russia deliberately makes the identification process hard for us. The bodies return in a very mutilated state, with body parts in different bags. There are even cases where the remains of one person are returned in different stages of repatriation."

Identification as investigation

Russian soldiers' remains were included in the latest repatriation, mixed in with Ukrainian bodies and lacking any identifying markers, said Klymenko.

The move may have been intentional, meant to overwhelm Ukrainian forensic teams and exert psychological pressure, he said.

Alternatively, "it could just be the usual careless way they treat their own people. In any case, we're also identifying these bodies," Klymenko said.

Some bodies arrive without internal organs, making it impossible to determine cause of death. There have been cases of "literally empty remains," erasing forensic evidence and turning identification into a puzzle, said Belaychkova.

"The Russians are transferring bodies in a condition that makes it impossible to establish a cause and effect relationship," she said.

The mutilated remains and lack of consolidated lists are part of Russia's strategy, analysts argue.

"The Russians are capable of absolutely anything. A bag might hold explosives that will be activated remotely later on. Anything is possible," Stupak said.

Russian lies about repatriation

As the repatriations continue, a parallel stream of disinformation is intensifying. Claims are surfacing in Ukraine suggesting it received far more bodies than it transferred to Russia -- framing that supposed imbalance as evidence of catastrophic Ukrainian losses. Analysts call it part of a broader psychological campaign.

"When our troops retreat, the Russians gain access to both our fallen and their own. Naturally, they have more bodies at their disposal, so they play the numbers game. The difference is nearly 100-fold, and they exploit it," said Stupak.

Ukraine has not confirmed how many Russian bodies it returned in the latest tranche of repatriations. Russia claimed 78 and earlier said 27. Meanwhile, Ukraine has received 6,057 bodies. The gap is easily explainable to observers who agree with Stupak: Russia controls occupied territory and has physical access to many more bodies, giving it an advantage in shaping perception.

"Anyone could be in the bags. Civilians too," Stupak said.

The repatriation effort is a first step toward humanitarian dialogue but only a beginning. The real work lies ahead: identifying the dead and legally certifying their deaths to lay the foundation for justice and historical record.

Alongside the transfers, Ukraine and Russia also conducted a prisoner swap during negotiations in Istanbul. Those returned to Ukraine included seriously ill and wounded defenders, soldiers under 25 and service members previously listed as missing.