Ministry of Health, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Ministry of Defence step up coordination at every stage of identifying the fallen

Prime Minister of Ukraine Sergii Koretskyi held an interagency meeting with the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Defence on improving the process of identifying the bodies of repatriated service members and civilians.

Identification is a complex process involving several agencies and services at different stages, so interagency coordination was the central theme of the meeting. Participants reviewed the entire pathway — from a body's arrival and the ordering of the necessary examinations, through establishing identity and preparing documentation, to handing the results over to the family. They also looked specifically at how long each stage takes and where the process could be made more efficient.

Discussion covered the procedures both before and after forensic medical examination, information exchange among the agencies involved, the regulatory framework, and communication with the families of the deceased. The forensic examinations needed for identification are currently carried out by 21 regional forensic medical bureaus — the capacity the Ministry of Health has been steadily building since 2023 as part of the broader reform of the forensic medical examination system.

Even though the system is working under heavy strain and a shortage of staff — of the roughly 1,500 experts needed for it to run at full capacity, only around 1,000 are currently in post — the stage from an investigator issuing an order to receiving the forensic report back takes no more than a month.

At the same time, capacity for the identification examinations themselves is expanding. Compared with 2023, the number of molecular genetic tests has doubled, and the forensic system now operates seven DNA laboratories. Other methods are also being used far more widely: modern techniques for reconstructing fingerprint patterns and post-mortem fingerprinting now make it possible to obtain fingerprints even in difficult cases and match them against state registries.

That said, the speed of the process as a whole depends on more than the examination itself. That's why the meeting focused heavily on cooperation across all the agencies involved, both before and after the examination takes place. Participants discussed which procedures and regulatory provisions need to be adjusted to avoid delays, speed up the exchange of information, and keep every stage running smoothly in sequence.

Following the meeting, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Defence are to work together on changes to procedures and the regulatory framework, and to strengthen coordination at every stage of identification. The main goal is to cut the time involved wherever possible without compromising the accuracy of the examinations, so that families can receive identification results as soon as possible and lay their loved ones to rest with dignity.