Ukraine says identifying bodies returned by Russia could take over year

Speaking on the national telethon, Klymenko said that a total of 6,060 bodies of Ukrainians killed in the war — including soldiers — have been repatriated in recent exchanges.

The Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War had previously reported 6,057 bodies. The repatriation effort, part of the Istanbul Agreements, concluded on June 16.

“Each body bag we receive can contain not just a single body, but multiple human remains — belonging to one, two, or even three individuals. During forensic examinations, we’ve started to discover body parts of the same person in different bags or from separate exchanges. The enemy is doing everything possible to complicate our work and delay the process,” Klymenko said.

He noted that forensic experts, investigators, and other personnel are working in three shifts to accelerate the identification process, which culminates in generating a DNA profile for each individual.

“According to preliminary estimates from our experts, processing all 6,000 cases will take roughly 13 to 14 months. That’s the most conservative estimate for full identification,” the minister added.

• On Sunday, June 15, another stage of repatriation efforts took place. 1,200 bodies of deceased citizens were returned to Ukraine.