The Lugansk People’s Republic has passed 125 fragments of remains of people killed in Donbass defending the Donetsk People’s Republic for DNA tests, head of the DPR Forensic Bureau Dmitry Kalashnikov said at the “Unhealing Wound of Donbass” international roundtable discussion.
“We’ve genotyped more than 250 unidentified bodies since 2017 and more than 300 relatives who are looking for their missing kin,” Kalashnikov said. “The Forensic Bureau currently has more than 240 bone fragments in its archive; our Lugansk colleagues have added another 125 to be genotyped in the near future.”
The Forensic Bureau head said that the Donbass Republics are creating a DNA database to identify Ukrainian aggression victims remains.
“A database of two Republics will be created: a cadaveric material database and a relatives database. This will help us identify the victims not only in the DPR and LPR, but also raise the issue at talks with Ukraine, because the victims’ bodies have to be returned to the homeland,” he added.
In August, LPR and DPR representatives signed an agreement in Lugansk on cooperation and information exchange in the search for victims of Ukrainian aggression and identification of their remains.
In the LPR, the first exhumation of Ukrainian aggression victims was carried out in the village of Sabovka, Slavyanoserbsk district, on August 11. As of now, remains of 267 Kiev aggression victims have been retrieved.
LPR authorities urged to report individual or mass graves or missing relatives (in zones of fighting since 2014 to date) using the working group’s hotline +38 (72) 216 80 30 or email to wg-img-lpr@ya.ru. *i*t
