By Olha Chepil | 2026-03-02

Nazar Daletsky did not hesitate when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. A veteran of four rotations to the east during the 2014 Anti-Terrorist Operation(ATO), he had already suffered a concussion and broken ribs. In 2022, he repeatedly went to the recruitment office insisting on being sent to the front.

"I have to go; I was in the ATO, I served in the army. I have experience, he used to say," Oksana Kukhar, head of the Veliky Doroshiv district, told Kontur.

Daletsky grew up in the western Ukrainian village of Veliky Doroshiv near the Polish border. Locals recall him as calm, stubborn and responsible. Mobilized in March 2022, he joined the 24th Separate Mechanized Brigade and called his mother daily from the front -- until the calls suddenly stopped.

Missing in Popasna

Daletsky disappeared in May 2022 during the battle for Popasna in the Luhansk region, one of the fiercest fights of the early war.

"He stopped reaching out then. At eleven o'clock at night, on either a Saturday or Sunday, a caller told his mother: 'Your son is in captivity,'" Kukhar recalled.

Months passed with no confirmation. In September, authorities officially listed him as missing in action. As required, relatives submitted DNA samples to help identify any recovered remains.

Officials later informed the family that a charred body found after a bus carrying prisoners of war burned matched Daletsky's DNA with 99.9% certainty. They said the remains had been in a Kharkiv morgue for six months.

"I had my doubts, but if it really was my son, I couldn't let his bones be buried somewhere in Kharkiv," his 72-year-old mother Natalya Daletskaya told Kontur.

The body was returned to the village and buried with full military honors. A grave was marked, memorial plaques were updated, and authorities began issuing posthumous awards.

"I didn't see who I was burying -- it was just a bag and that was it," Daletskaya recalled. "But I told people: if I let myself think it isn't Nazar, I'll go mad."

"They gave my son this award posthumously -- the Hero's Cross," she said.

The mother visited the cemetery several times a week. She even placed sweets in the coffin, just in case her son had been hungry in his final moments.

Lists raise doubts

Two years later, in summer 2025, unofficial online lists of Ukrainian prisoners of war began circulating -- and Daletsky's name appeared on them.

"My acquaintances in the security services checked -- the list was new. But I said to them: 'Do you realize we buried him?' And she asked: 'What do you mean, buried?'" Kukhar recalled.

Former prisoners released in exchanges also reported seeing Daletsky alive in Russian captivity. The family hesitated to tell his mother, unsure whether it was a mistake or a namesake.

"Nazar's mother suffered from high blood pressure, so we tried not to tell her anything because we didn't know for sure -- was he alive, or was it just someone with the same name?" Kukhar said.

In February 2026, the family received confirmation from Ukraine's Coordination Center that Daletsky was on the list for an upcoming exchange.

"I was taking sedatives because I couldn't fully believe it until the end. Then the phone rang, and I heard... my son. I was so overcome with joy that I forgot everything I wanted to say to him," Daletskaya recalled.

Daletsky, now 46, had spent three years and nine months in captivity. After his return, he was sent for rehabilitation and could speak with relatives only by phone. Kukhar said he suffers knee problems from abuse in captivity and is working with a psychologist.

"He told us he never even imagined he might have been buried, and he can't fathom what his mother has gone through," she said.

The exchange followed US-brokered February peace talks in Abu Dhabi and brought home 157 Ukrainians, including military personnel, border guards and civilians held since the early months of the war.

Grave holds questions

Daletsky's return leaves one unresolved question: whose remains lie in the grave in Veliky Doroshiv?

"There must be an exhumation. Someone else's child or father is buried there... Let them take him and run DNA tests. Because someone out there is looking for him," Daletskaya said.

Deputy Interior Minister Leonid Timchenko traveled to Kharkiv to investigate the error. Officials say Daletsky's case appears to be the first of its kind in Ukraine.

"We understand how high-profile and unacceptable this event is; such mistakes simply should not happen. We will thoroughly investigate the case and review all the tests conducted on the biological material from the mother and the remains used for comparison," Timchenko told the "1+1" TV channel.

Experts are expected to exhume the remains in the coming days while investigators review the DNA records.

"It's some kind of mistake, I don't know. Either they made an error there, or here when they took the mother's DNA. Now experts will take an additional DNA sample. Then they will add it to the database to search for the true relatives," Kukhar said.

Meanwhile, Daletsky's village is preparing to welcome him home.

"I'll cook borscht and varenyky; I can't wait to hug him," Daletskaya said.