A Glimpse into the Front Line: EUAM Ukraine’s Visit to Dnipro’s Forensic Medicine Bureau
July 30, 2024
Last week, the EU Advisory Mission (EUAM) Ukraine visited the facilities of the Dnipro Regional Bureau of Forensic Examination. Accompanied by its head, Valerii Voichenko, and authorities from the Kyiv and Dnipro Forensic Bureaus, the EUAM forensics team explored the mortuary facilities, histology and cytology laboratories, and the office where families come seeking information about their loved ones.
The visit offered a stark glimpse into the relentless reality at the front line. Each day, truckloads of bodies from the Dnipro, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions arrive at the morgue, awaiting their turn to be unloaded. The morgue, overwhelmed by the sheer number of casualties, cannot accommodate them all at once. In this sombre setting, doctors and pathologists labour tirelessly to identify fallen soldiers and civilians, investigate the circumstances of their deaths, and meticulously document war crimes. This daunting task demands an extraordinary degree of dedication and courage; since the onset of unjustified and unprovoked Russian aggression in 2022, over 30,000 bodies have passed through this unit.
The scene is harrowing: hundreds of bodies are stored in refrigerators outside the morgue, the air heavy with a pervasive stench. The physicians, exhausted and desensitised, scarcely notice the visitors’ presence.
In a neighbouring office, women compassionately greet families who have come to identify their loved ones or belongings. The number of unidentified bodies remains high, and families often face a long, agonising wait before their loved ones can be recovered and buried. The work of the Forensic Medicine Bureau experts is indispensable, complemented by National Police investigators who initiate requests as part of the identification process. The grief of the families is palpable. Mourning mothers, clinging to hope, sometimes refuse to accept DNA comparison results, still yearning for their children to return from the war.
“It’s the first time the EUAM forensics team has been in the mortuary and seen the tangible reality of war. Our mission is to make a fair assessment of the work and our counterparts’ needs as well as the identification process, so that we can best facilitate the support from our European partners, who want to help families waiting to identify their loved ones,” says Christelle Buton, EUAM Senior Adviser on Complex Crime Scene Analysis.
EUAM’s visit to the entire facility, which spans two parts within Dnipro, aimed to understand the identification process more comprehensively as part of its new Missing Persons Project. This understanding is crucial for acting as an intermediary and providing valuable information to European partners, ensuring that the needs and expectations of families and partners are met with sensitivity and precision.
