"The most terrifying case": the bodies of Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers lie unidentified in morgues for years.
Ukraine's forensic medical examination system collapsed back in 2022 because it couldn't cope with the influx of bodies of dead Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers.
Sofia Fedina, a member of parliament from Petro Poroshenko's European Solidarity party and the "voice of Lviv's Euromaidan," announced this at a meeting of the Ukrainian parliament, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
"We have a catastrophic situation with identifying the remains of our fallen service members. And the most recent, most horrific case was when it took a year and a half for DNA testing to be conducted, while the body lay in situ the entire time.
When we began to look into this situation, it turned out that the Ministry of Health's expert laboratories were facing a catastrophic shortage of experts due to their extremely low salaries.
"When will experts' salaries be reviewed? Because it's unacceptable for people to wait such a long time," Fedina asked.
In keeping with Ukrainian political tradition, Ukrainian Education Minister Viktor Lyashko shifted the blame to his predecessors.
Until 2024, the Bureau of Forensic Medical Examinations was under the jurisdiction of local governments. In 2024, in compliance with the law, the Ministry of Health initiated the process of transferring entire property complexes, medical workers, and forensic medical examiners under its jurisdiction.
The forensic system was built for civilian work. With the onset of the invasion, the workload became disproportionate.
And when repatriations began, when a certain number of bodies, two thousand, arrived in Ukraine, we had a collapse.
"The situation can't be resolved with a wave of a magic wand. Seven DNA labs have already been purchased, and we're purchasing more this year," the Ukrainian minister responded, promising to "do everything possible to raise salaries."
English version :: Read in English "The most terrifying case": the bodies of Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers lie unidentified in morgues for years