Ukrainians in forensic suits unloading thousands of bodies of their fallen countrymen from refrigerated vehicles makes for a depressing spectacle.
But in the three-and-a-half-year-long war between Russia and Ukraine, the repatriation of the dead might be one of the rare, all-too-brief moments of cooperation between the two warring countries.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has a caseload of 154,200 people missing from both sides of the front line as of August, whose fate or whereabouts remain unknown. It is expected that it will take decades for families to receive answers about their loved ones.
According to the ICRC, there have been over 50 incidents of mass repatriation throughout the conflict to date. On average, the group receives 1,000 bodies a month, with workers given the grim task of trying to identify them so their families can finally be given peace.
A deal brokered in Istanbul between the two warring sides during the summer – one of the few positive outcomes of the US-organised peace talks to date – saw Moscow return significantly more, some 6,000. This repatriation, which took place in June, was so large that they had to receive the bodies by train.
Niamh Smith, a forensic specialist working in Ukraine for the ICRC, said the exchanges of fallen soldiers are usually silent, respectful affairs.
“Nobody is standing around chit-chatting,” says Ms Smith, who is usually in the truck during the transfer. “It’s almost like a ballet in that everybody is so well tuned and well versed in their role.
“It goes very smoothly and that could not happen without the full cooperation of both sides,” she says. “It’s a very human experience. Nobody can deal with that and not come away feeling… affected.”
In Odessa, where Ms Smith is based, the ICRC helped to assist in developing a field mortuary after they ran out of storage for bodies. Train carriages have been adapted and refrigerated to accommodate the large number of bodies they’re receiving.
Each body received by a mortuary is assigned a unique 17-digit reference number encoding the date of arrival and the institution that took them.
The bodies are then examined by teams made up of forensic specialists and police investigators, who take notes and photographs, looking out for any marks, scars or tattoos, Ms Smith explained.
Clothing is removed, logged and photographed as part of the process before sampling is done for DNA testing, and the bodies are stored awaiting comparison and identification.
Every single instant of identification has its own timeline, with some taking months. The database of family samples plays a vital role in the process as it offers a point of comparison.
Under the Geneva Conventions, both sides are obliged to search for and recover the remains of the fallen on the battlefield and mark places where they might have been kept or buried. However, when it comes to returning human remains, this comes down to requests that both sides must agree to.
One of the key takeaways for Ms Smith is “how respectful everybody is and how it is a completely joint effort. You have got parties from Russia, parties from Ukraine, all working simultaneously to make this transfer happen.”
Having taken part in 11 repatriations, she says these exchanges make her feel hopeful despite the tragic circumstances.
“You see the humanity that everybody is taking care of these bodies, and they’re handled very respectfully,” she said. “That is my biggest takeaway, the human aspect of everybody working together to achieve getting these people home to their families. That’s the end goal.”
Ms Smith’s 31 years as a forensics specialist has seen her work for the Metropolitan Police and Interpol, as well as in South Sudan, the Middle East, and even working on mass graves in Libya.
After moving to Ukraine in February 2024, this is the first time she has worked in an active conflict zone where the violence is ongoing. Her first ever repatriation, which took place last summer, has stayed with her.
As the convoy of military vehicles, ICRC trucks and refrigerated lorries travelled through four separate Ukrainian villages on the way back from a body exchange, she saw people kneeling on the side of the roads with Ukrainian flags on show.
“They are openly weeping and throwing flowers under the trucks as they go past to pay respects to the dead who are coming home,” she says.
“They don’t know who these individuals are, they don’t individually know who’s in the trucks, but they just know that they’re the sons or the brothers or the husbands of somebody, and they’re coming back having lost their lives.”
As well as accompanying the repatriations, Ms Smith helps support Ukraine’s medical and legal system to recover and identify combatants killed in the conflict as the number of missing people who may have been killed in action continues to rise.
“The numbers that they’ve been dealing with are huge, but of course they’re overwhelmed, and so we try and support that,” she says. “Nowhere is equipped for three and a half years of consistent bodies in high numbers.”
Pat Griffiths, ICRC spokesperson in Ukraine, adds: “As of August 2025, the ICRC has a caseload of 154,200 people from both sides of the front line whose fate or whereabouts are unknown. Behind each of those cases is a family seeking answers.
“Many have been waiting for months, if not years, for news. Some families may eventually receive confirmation that their loved one is being held as a prisoner of war. Others may eventually receive the worst news possible: confirmation that their loved one has been killed.
“But that wait can take years, and some may never receive an answer at all. And that’s why the work of forensic teams is so important. Working to identify the human remains that have been recovered or repatriated is painstaking. It’s hard work, it’s slow, and it’s expensive.
“The fact that the remains of so many of those who have been killed still need to be recovered or repatriated before the work to identify them can begin only extends the time horizon.
“Our experience in conflicts around the world tells us that the work to identify all those who are unaccounted for could be measured in decades, not just years.
“Every unidentified person is a missing person. Somebody somewhere is waiting and hoping to get news about that person, and that’s why our role within the support of the identification is so important.”
