Reposted by: Roman Sheremeta — It is so painful to read. About 6,000 bodies of Ukrainians that russia has returned. It feels like a vision from the times of Stalin and Hitler. I am grateful to our pathologists who carry out this work, giving relatives the final confirmation of who has died.
On a dusty railway platform in the Odesa region, Ukrainian workers unload white bags with bodies from refrigerated train cars. The air is thick with the stench of death, The New York Times reports.
Inside the bags lie mutilated remains, caked in mud and rot. They are part of the 6,000 bodies russia has returned to Ukraine in a mass exchange. The bodies arrive by the hundreds.
Twenty-seven-year-old pathologist Ruslana Klymenko bends over a half-decomposed corpse. Fluids seep through her gloves and protective suit, leaving dark stains. In her hair she has tied two pink ribbons — the only bright detail amid dozens of white bags and the reek of death.
Six teams work in shifts under camouflage netting. Investigators open the bags, check the remains for explosives, and document personal belongings. Each body is assigned a 17-digit code. Flies swarm above the platform; the stench of decay burns the throat.
Technicians dip blackened fingers into near-boiling water, then into ice water, to restore fingerprints. They photograph documents, scraps of clothing, jewelry, and ID tags.
“Some families do not trust DNA tests. But when they see personal belongings, there are no more doubts,” says investigator Andriy Shelep.
The latest trains brought 2,600 bodies. Thousands more are expected. Some bags contain the mixed parts of several people after explosions. According to the Interior Ministry, identification will take more than a year.
Families wait in anguish. In Kyiv, Tetiana Dmytrenko spent more than a year and a half waiting for news about her husband Oleksandr, who was killed on November 15, 2023, near Bakhmut. On June 23, police told her that her daughter Maryna’s DNA had confirmed his body.
“All I have left is his last message: ‘I love you.’ After twenty months of uncertainty, I finally know he is home,” she says.
Source: text translated from Тимофій Милованов’s post.
Voice of Ukraine 