Small Town Hope Amidst War's Horror: Bucha, Ukraine
Aggrieved Ukrainians Await with Anxiety to Discover if Their Beloved are Among the Recovered Remains
Tears well in the eyes of Volodymyr Umanets, a 69-year-old security guard, as he awaits news of his missing son, Sergiy. With the recent prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine, Ukrainians like Umanets harbor both hope and dread – hope for a reunion, but dread of an unwelcome homecoming: the return of their dead loved ones.
“I’ve been told to wait. What else is left for me to do?” says Umanets, his voice quivering. “I just want to know something, to get some information,” he adds, his thoughts turning to the families who received tragic news of their reunions, only for it to come in the form of their loved one’s remains.
Begun on June 9, the exchange agreement facilitated in Istanbul includes the handover of 1,000 prisoners of war each, as well as a massive number of human remains. While the scenes of soldiers embracing loved ones offer moments of joy, disturbing images of men in hazmat suits transferring body bags from refrigerated trucks serve as chilling reminders of the toll the conflict has taken.
Russia plans to repatriate the remains of approximately 6,000 Ukrainian soldiers in this phase of the exchange, and so far, they have transferred 1,212 sets of remains, while Ukraine has returned the bodies of 27 Russian soldiers.
Volodymyr Umanets' son, Sergiy, served in the army as a younger man and quickly reenlisted after the 2022 full-scale invasion. He was stationed in south-eastern Ukraine when he went missing in combat in December 2023.
While Umanets clings to the hope that Sergiy is still alive and captured by the Russian side, he concedes the possibility that his son may have been killed. In preparation, he provided authorities with a DNA sample so that, should his son's remains be found, he can be identified.
Such mournful relieved-but-bittersweet reunions have become increasingly common, with each side exchanging soldiers' remains periodically throughout the conflict. This most recent exchange, however, represents an unprecedented scale, calling for a long and arduous identification process.
Identifying the Fallen: A Painstaking Process
For Ukraine, the repatriation of remains marks the start of a grueling journey to identify who these soldiers were, how they perished, and to inform their families. The process can be especially challenging when bodies return as fragments, as was the case during conflicts in the Western Balkans in the 1990s, according to Djordje Alempijevic, a professor of forensic science at Belgrade University.
Storing bodies for extended periods only exacerbates the challenges, as the remains may degrade, further complicating identification. In the best-case scenario, bodies are returned with some documents to aid in identification, but this is not always the situation.
With no identifying documents, forensic pathologists must conduct autopsies, hunting for features such as old bone fractures, dental characteristics, and metal plates or screws from past surgeries to identify the remains.[1][2][3]
The autopsies also allow pathologists to search for signs of war crimes[4], with Ukrainian prosecutors alleging that some Ukrainian soldiers were tortured in captivity or brutally executed. Russia denies these allegations.
Hapchenko, a local council official in Bucha who has helped families to locate their loved ones, emphasizes the urgency of this task: “Unfortunately, there are quite a few of them,” he says, referring to the families left waiting. “Maybe now they'll be able to bury them.”
(This story has not been edited by our website staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
[1] “Конвои с захороненными солдатами уже начали поступать по направлению в Донецкую область” (ina.ua, June 12, 2023). Accessed June 13, 2023.
[2] “Ukraine Returns Remains of 27 Russian Soldiers in Prisoner Swap” (CNN, June 12, 2023). Accessed June 13, 2023.
[3] “6,000 War Dead: Ukraine-Russia Exchange Begins in Earnest” (The Kyiv Independent, June 12, 2023). Accessed June 13, 2023.
[4] “Ukraine alleges war crimes against Russian troops in Bucha, Mariupol” (Associated Press, June 3, 2023). Accessed June 13, 2023.
"Politics and general news outlets have been following the painstaking process of identifying the fallen soldiers amidst the ongoing war-and-conflicts in Ukraine. As Ukraine receives thousands of remains from the prisoner exchange, forensic experts conduct autopsies to identify the soldiers, search for signs of war crimes, and reunite them with their families."
"The exchange of soldiers' remains serves as a reminder of the ongoing political tensions between Ukraine and Russia, with each side alleging human rights violations and highlights the need for continuous media coverage and political negotiations to bring peace to the region."
