At a military cemetery on the outskirts of Kyiv, rows of white crosses stand. The plaque where the deceased's name usually appears now bears the inscription: "Unknown Defender of Ukraine," with a smaller note stating that identification is underway.
Ever since the war began more than four years ago, there has been no burial site for unidentified soldiers. The bodies have been stored in cold storage awaiting identification.
At the cemetery outside Kyiv, which opened six months ago, there are now more than 300 numbered crosses. And more graves are being dug.
DNA required
One reason why many soldiers are difficult to identify is that during the first years of the war there were no routines for taking DNA samples from conscripted soldiers. It was only after several years of fighting that a database was built. Now soldiers are required to provide DNA, which makes identification easier, reports the AP news agency.
In cases where there are no samples in the database, a close relative is required to come forward, which is not always easy if the relative is in occupied territory or abroad.
Oleksandra and Stanislav Jalynytch's father, Ihor, was sent to the front at the beginning of the war and was killed two months later, in April 2022, in eastern Ukraine.
It was not until four years later that he was identified after his son Stanislav provided a DNA sample for comparison. Now the siblings finally have a grave to go to:
"For these four years, I just wanted to come and sit with him, talk. I took the loss very hard. Now I'm glad we found him," 21-year-old Oleksandra told the AP.
Continuing after the war
Maksym Paziura, a forensic doctor in Kyiv, says that identifying dead soldiers is a complicated process. Often the remains of several people are mixed together and the bodies are in an advanced stage of decomposition.
"Even if the war ends, we will still have a lot of work to do. Identification is a difficult and long process. It will not end when the fighting does," says Paziura.
The Jalynytch siblings have put up a photo of their father Ihor in front of the grave. Now strangers stop to ask about him.
For Stanislav, it means that his father's sacrifice was not in vain, that his memory lives on.
Now it's not just us who know that our father lies here, he says.
