Ukraine needed to use advanced DNA technology to identify all 59 civilians killed in Russian missile attack on village café
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Police have identified the remains of all 59 people killed by Russia's deadliest missile strike of 2023 on a cafe in Hroza village, Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine’s Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko reported on Telegram on Oct. 12.
"59 people were killed by the direct hit of a Russian Iskander missile in the village of Hroza. All the victims were local residents, including pensioners, doctors, farmers, teachers, and businessmen. All of them were civilians, entire families of several generations were killed," Klymenko wrote, noting that 19 people were identified using mobile DNA laboratories.
Forensic experts worked around the clock for six days, collecting samples from relatives, creating profiles, and searching for matching DNA fragments.
Samples from twenty body parts were needed to identify a 60-year-old man. Two others were identified using personal items taken from their homes because they had no direct relatives for DNA comparison.
The Kharkiv Oblast’s investigators and forensic experts carried out an enormous and unprecedented amount of work to identify and compare the fragments, which would have taken about a year without modern mobile DNA laboratories.
"It was important for us to establish the name of each victim, preserve their memory, and record all the victims of the Russian strike," Klymenko said.
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