France offered Kiev this week a second vehicle of this type, which should make it possible to put a name to the numerous remains of victims of Russian war crimes. He will be sent to the south of the country to collect evidence.
It could pass for a simple delivery van, but this type of DNA laboratory truck has already proven itself after the Boutcha massacre near Kiev last spring, on the hundreds of corpses left behind by the Russians. It made it possible to identify bodies found in mass graves in Izium, a liberated Kharkiv region, a few months later. France, which had offered this vehicle to Ukraine in July 2022, therefore decided to send a second.
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“In Izium, thanks to the truck, our forensic experts were able to identify the bodies of about twenty people shot dead by the Russians in their cars while they were a humanitarian evacuation convoy, says Andriy Kostin, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine. The corpses had been burned.” On these mutilated bodies, often only DNA allows identification.
This is the second mobile DNA laboratory from the French Republic to operate in the de-occupied territories. Together with Minister of Justice Denis Maluska, expressed our gratitude to Ambassador of 🇫🇷 to 🇺🇦 @EdePoncinsMinister of Justice @E_DupondMand the people of France… pic.twitter.com/MCI8c4iQnx
— Andriy Kostin (@AndriyKostinUa) May 10, 2023
The mobile laboratory offers the possibility of going as close as possible to the places where Russian abuses are discovered, explains Etienne de Poncins, the French ambassador to Ukraine: “This makes it possible to gain in efficiency and speed since a body can be linked more quickly to the family. Given the number of war crimes committed, it is a very precious and much appreciated help. And the Ukrainian request was to have a lot of equipment, consumables”.
A new truck positioned in the south
A valuable tool for accumulating evidence and documenting these Russian war crimes, the second laboratory truck, delivered this week, will be positioned in the south of the country, towards Dnipro and Zaporijjia. There, Anna Mirgorodska’s forensic team stands ready to leave for the regions still occupied by the Russians: “We hope that the occupied territories of the Zaporizhia region such as Berdyansk and Melitopol will be liberated as soon as possible. We will be ready to go and collect samples in these cities. We hope that will happen soon.”
France itself does not have more than two of these DNA laboratory trucks, as many as what it has offered to Ukraine.
Ukraine: a laboratory truck for the identification of victims – Report by Camille Magnard
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