Ukraine Receives 252 Bodies From Russia, Identification to Follow

Ukraine has received the bodies of 252 people whom Russia claims were Ukrainian servicemen, the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War announced on Thursday, Oct. 22.

The headquarters said in a Telegram statement that law enforcement investigators and forensic specialists would carry out the procedures needed to establish the identities of those returned.

“According to the Russian side, the bodies belong to Ukrainian military personnel,” the statement says.

In June 2025, Ukraine said Russia mixed in bodies of deceased Russian troops during repatriations.

The latest operation involved the coordination headquarters, the Joint Center under the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), the interior ministry and the parliamentary human rights commissioner’s office.

The Secretariat of the Commissioner for Persons Missing under Special Circumstances, the State Emergency Service (DSNS) and other security and defense institutions also participated.

The headquarters thanked the International Committee of the Red Cross for its assistance and support in carrying out the repatriation.

It separately acknowledged personnel from the Armed Forces’ Joint Center for Civil-Military Cooperation Support, who transport repatriated remains to specialized state institutions.

Their work includes arranging the transfer of the bodies to law enforcement representatives within the interior ministry system and forensic medical institutions within the health ministry system. Military civil-military cooperation structures oversee the broader coordination.

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Identification remains a lengthy process

The return of remains is one stage in a process that can leave families waiting months or years for definitive information about missing relatives.

Ukrainian police have described complex forensic and safety procedures required after repatriation, including mandatory checks for dangerous objects before identification work begins.

Taras Tarasenko, a senior police investigator in the Kirovohrad region, said explosive objects and grenades had been discovered in repatriated bodies on several occasions.

After safety checks, specialists look for documents, mobile phones, military identification tags and bank cards. They also photograph clothing, tattoos and other distinguishing features that may help establish a person’s identity.

Investigators have sometimes received the remains of several people mixed in a single bag. Forensic experts must separate them for examination and DNA analysis.

Tarasenko said batches of 200-250 bodies could arrive at once, while his team aimed to examine around 10 a day to preserve the quality of its work.

A DNA match becomes possible once both the relative’s sample and the profile from the returned remains are entered into the database.

Authorities seek to speed up identification

Earlier in October, Ukraine announced plans for an interagency group to accelerate identification, with a significant share of more than 26,000 repatriated bodies and remains still unidentified.

Presidential Office head Kyrylo Budanov outlined the initiative on Oct. 2 following a meeting on the rights of veterans, prisoners of war, missing persons and their families.

The proposed measures included reviewing the work of forensic medical examination bureaus, particularly in the regions, and seeking additional international capacity for DNA testing.

Budanov criticized bureaucratic delays and violations of forensic procedures, saying families needed reliable information about their loved ones as quickly as possible. He did not specify how many of the returned remains were still awaiting identification.

Previous repatriations

Ukraine previously received 252 bodies in a separate operation on Sept. 17. In that case, Russia said the remains belonged to Ukrainian citizens, including military personnel, pending Ukrainian identification procedures.

Other returns this year included 522 bodies in June and 1,000 in April.

The larger repatriation process followed agreements reached during talks in Istanbul in June 2025, when Ukraine and Russia committed to returning thousands of bodies.

Under that arrangement, each side agreed to return the remains of 6,000 fallen soldiers, according to then-Defense Minister Rustem Umerov. The agreements enabled successive repatriation operations despite the continuing war.