Ukraine struggles to identify thousands of soldiers' remains

It has been more than a year since Ms Anastasiia Tsvietkova’s husband went missing fighting the Russians near the eastern city of Pokrovsk, and she does not know whether he is alive or dead.

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Russia does not routinely provide information about those captured or killed, and there has been no news from fellow soldiers or the International Red Cross, which can sometimes visit prisoner-of-war camps.

If Mr Yaroslav Kachemasov was indeed killed on the front, then the recent repatriation of thousands of bodies might at least allow Ms Tsvietkova to grieve.

Yet even that still seems a remote prospect, as Ukraine's forensic identification laboratories are overwhelmed by not only the sudden arrival of so many bodies, but also the difficulty of identifying remains that may be burned or dismembered.

The 29-year-old dentist living in Kyiv submitted a sample of her husband's DNA, filled in dozens of forms, wrote letters and joined social media groups as she sought information.

Mr Kachemasov, 37, went missing during his second combat mission near Pokrovsk, which Russia has been attacking for months. The place where he disappeared is now occupied by Russia.

“The uncertainty has been the toughest,” Ms Tsvietkova told Reuters. “Your loved one, with whom you have been together day in, day out for Il years — now there is such an information vacuum that you simply don’t know anything at all.”

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, hundreds of thousands have been killed or wounded on both sides. At least 70,000 Ukrainian soldiers and civilians have been reported missing.

In the last four months, more than 7,000 mostly unidentified bodies have been brought to Ukraine in refrigerated rail cars and trucks, the piles of white plastic sacks a grim reminder of the cost of the worst conflict in Europe since World War II.

Reuters spoke to eight experts, including police investigators, the Interior Minister, as well as Ukrainian and international forensic scientists and volunteers, and visited a forensic DNA laboratory in Kyiv.