Not all bodies handed over by Russia to Ukraine can be identified – Interior Ministry official

Experts face cases where it is impossible to identify the body of the deceased or its remains. This happens because the deceased had no relatives or did not provide biological material, said LIGA.net in an interview "DNA Match – 99.9%". How the years of war have changed body exchanges with Russia and why there are unidentified bodies" by Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Leonid Tymchenko.

Experts from the Main Bureau of Forensic Medicine, the Ministry of Health and the National Police are conducting the examination.

Tymchenko said that biological material is now taken from all military personnel and information about its storage location is recorded in their personal files. If a soldier disappears on the battlefield, the commander and the investigator know where to take this material to make a DNA profile.

After the DNA profile is extracted, it is placed in the electronic registry of human genomic information and the search for first-circle relatives (parents, children, husband or wife) begins.

"If there are no relatives, then you need to find personal belongings – a shaving machine, a toothbrush, personal clothes and other things that can be used to make a DNA profile. There are also identification tokens, and every soldier should be provided with them," noted the Deputy Interior Minister .

The so-called dental formula is also established. If a serviceman was registered in a hospital and underwent dental treatment, this formula is also attached to the materials of the criminal proceedings on his search.

"Comparison of the body's dental formula with the formula in the medical record may be the basis for identification. This will be the next step after DNA," Timchenko explained .

• on June 16, 2025, Klymenko said that during the latest repatriations Russia handed over to Ukraine the bodies of its military mixed with those of Ukrainian defenders. According to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, , at least 20 bodies of the occupiers are involved.
• On June 23, the Interior Minister said that DNA will be taken abroad from relatives of the occupiers who died or went missing, . This will be done by the International Commission on Missing Persons.