- Sometimes bodies are exchanged for prisoners
- Ukraine uses DNA tattoos to identify corpses
- 12 bodies found in 3 days in one village
MALA ROHAN, Ukraine, May 24 (Reuters) – Ukraine is collecting the bodies of dead Russian soldiers scattered among the ruins of formerly occupied cities and using everything from DNA to tattoos to verify their identities in hopes of exchanging them for prisoners of war.
Volunteers helped the military collect 60 bodies in the northeastern region of Kharkov, where Russian forces have withdrawn in recent weeks by placing them in a refrigerated railway car.
Sometimes the bodies are used as part of an exchange of prisoners, and other times in exchange for Ukrainian bodies, said Anton Ivannikov, captain of the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ civil-military co-operation co-ordinating efforts. The bodies of high-ranking officials can be especially valuable for exchange.
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“We collect all documents, all credit cards. Anything that would help us identify the body,” including tattoos and DNA, Ivannikov said.
“In the future, this will tell us which soldier, which brigade was in this region, for further exchange,” he said.
The bodies will travel by train to Kyiv, where the exchange negotiation team is based, he said.
Reconstruction efforts have been made possible by Ukraine’s expulsion of Russian forces from cities in the Kharkiv region – and largely out of the reach of Kharkiv’s second-largest artillery.
Ritual worker lifts the body of a slain Russian soldier before loading it into a refrigerated wagon as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues at a morgue complex in Kharkiv, Ukraine, May 22, 2022. REUTERS / Vitalii Hnidyi
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In a recent reconstruction effort in the village of Mala Rohan, east of Kharkiv, Reuters witnessed volunteers using ropes to drag the bodies of two Russian soldiers from a well between houses badly damaged by the shelling.
At least one of the two has his hands tied, a sign, Ivannikov said, that they may have been punished as deserters. Reuters was unable to verify the circumstances of any of the deaths.
Two volunteers wrapped the bodies in white plastic tarpaulins and lifted them into an ambulance.
Volunteers dug up another body from a shallow grave marked with an improvised cardboard inscription that read “Russian Occupier Buried Here” with the name and date of the soldier’s burial.
A fourth body – one of 12 found in the village in three days – was removed from the basement of a woman’s home. He was left alone when his colleagues withdrew, “Ivannikov said.” He probably shot himself. “
Russia’s Defense Ministry has not responded to a request for comment on allegations that Russian soldiers may have been shot for desertion or whether it would consider exchanging bodies for Ukrainian prisoners of war.
As the Ukrainian military retrieves bodies around Kharkiv, about 240 km (149 miles) southeast, its forces are defending themselves against intense attacks in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine.
Moscow calls its actions a “special operation” to disarm its neighbor. Kyiv said it had never threatened Russia in any way and said the attack was completely unprovoked.
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Written by Connor Humphries Edited by Alexandra Hudson
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