People die every day in the war in Ukraine, often leaving only bones and ashes. Ukrainian forensic doctors are trying to return the names of the dead. Tens of thousands of families live in agonizing uncertainty.
On the table in front of Ihor Titarchuk are scattered the bones of a young soldier: a skull, parts of the pelvis, ribs, bones from the arms and legs. There is not much left, his name is unknown, reports the German public media ARD.
Titarchuk picks up one of the bones and points to the places by which the age of the dead can be estimated. The forensic doctor concluded that it was a young man, no older than 23.
But who was he? Where did he come from? When exactly did he die? And was there a mother, father, or girlfriend somewhere waiting for him to return? These are questions that forensic doctors in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro face every day.
Only torn remains
Dnipro is only a hundred kilometers from the front and active fighting. Local hospitals take in wounded soldiers, and many of the dead are also brought there from the fighting areas in the east and south of the country, ARD writes.
Some of the victims are taken from the battlefield immediately, but others lie there for weeks or months before their bodies are collected. And there are also dead bodies that are only discovered years later or that Russia returns as part of an exchange.
The forensic medicine department in Dnipro rarely receives whole bodies - usually they are just dismembered remains, and sometimes just individual bones or ashes.
"They bring dead bodies to us every day - there is no pause in the war. There are no weekends, no holidays,", Titarchuk told ARD.
He heads one of the forensic medicine departments in Dnipro. Since the beginning of the Russian aggression against Ukraine, identifying the dead has become one of the main tasks of the medics. Last year alone, about 30,000 cases were clarified, according to official Ukrainian data cited by ARD.
But the number of people whose fate is unclear remains huge. According to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, over 114,000 people are considered missing. These are mostly soldiers, but also civilians. Tens of thousands of families live in agonizing uncertainty - whether their loved one is dead or in Russian captivity.
Until the identity is fully established, anything remains possible. That is why forensic scientists search for even the smallest details - documenting tattoos and scars, examining teeth, clothing and personal belongings.
When explosions tear apart bodies and fire destroy almost everything that allows the identification of victims, only DNA remains. However, this does not automatically lead to the establishment of a name. In order for a sample to be classified, it needs material for comparison - for example, from parents or children. If such material is not available, the DNA profile can be stored, but the question of who the person is remains unanswered. With each passing day of the war, the number of dead is increasing, and with them the number of samples and unsolved cases.
"It is not normal for people born in 2006 to die"
Valery Vun has been dealing with such tragedies for years. He is over 70 and could have retired long ago, but forensic medicine is short of staff. The work is hard, and new employees are hard to find, ARD reports.
Vun still remembers the first soldier whose death he had to determine. A young man lay on the table in front of him. During the examination, his phone suddenly rang, and the same thing kept appearing on the screen: "Mom calling.". The doctor knew what the mother did not yet suspect - that her son was dead. To this day, Vun cannot tell this story without having to hold back tears. "I don't know how I can bear all this. He's lying in front of me, and his mother doesn't know he's dead yet."
Ihor Titarchuk also doesn't always manage to keep his composure. "We all know that death will come to us at some point - it always will. But the people who are dying now are dying too early." It's not normal for people born in 2005 or 2006 to die, the forensic pathologist adds.
That's why for Titarchuk, identifying the victims is more than just a medical task - it's the final step in returning home. Even if for the living, this return doesn't end as they had hoped, they at least have the opportunity to find out what happened, they have the opportunity to bury the person they've been worried about for months or years. The dead shouldn't just be a number, a DNA profile, or bone fragments in a laboratory. Everyone, says Titarchuk, must eventually return home.