As Ukraine’s counter-offensive progresses, Taras Svystun says his grisly job has gotten even bleaker.
Mr. Svystun, a soldier, is part of a six-person Ukrainian military unit that collects and identifies the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers killed in combat and returns them to their families for burial. The unit, known as “On The Shield”, operates throughout the country, including in the eastern Donetsk region.
Two-month-long Ukraine the counteroffensive has progressed painfully slowlywith units engaging the entrenched Russian defenses and suffering heavy casualties, although the exact number has not been made public.
“There are a lot more bodies right now,” Svystun said. He has seen the death toll in area morgues “more or less double since the counter-offensive began,” he added.
Waking up at 5 am each day, Mr. Svystun dons a khaki T-shirt with “Evacuation 200” written on the back, the Ukrainian military code for transporting soldiers killed in battle. He then drives his refrigerator truck through the Donetsk region, stopping at morgues, where some of the worst carnage of the war is revealed.
Human remains recovered from battered trenches, destroyed landscapes, and wrecked buildings are often damaged beyond recognition.
“If they don’t have a face, we cut their clothes and look for tattoos, scars and other identifying marks,” Svystun said. “It’s my job to help our boys who died come home.”
The New York Times recently accompanied Mr. Svystun for two days as he made his rounds. The Ukrainian military does not publish the number of casualties suffered by its forces, and exceptional access was granted on the condition that the exact number of witnessed deaths not be disclosed.
Still, it’s clear that soldier deaths are on the rise. Piles of bodies have been piling up in military morgues, Svystun said.
Most of those killed have died in recent fighting, but as Ukraine makes some small progress in its campaign to retake territory previously held by Russian forces, the bodies of soldiers killed months ago are also being recovered, Svystun said.
Ukrainian military units typically report news of missing and fallen troops to the “On the Shield” unit, including the names of the soldiers, a rough estimate of their last known location, and any potential identifying features.
Mr. Svystun, 45, and other members of his unit unzip each body bag and cut through blood-soaked uniforms, bulletproof vests and other equipment, including ammunition. After inspection and documentation, wallets and cell phones belonging to the deceased are stowed under their belt buckles or in a folded holster in the body bag. Some morgue workers new to the task notice retching from the bad smell.
“Some people can’t do this job,” said Svystun, who joined the military after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. He worked as a medic from 2015 to 2018 evacuating wounded from the front lines. during previous hostilities in the east of the country.
“That’s more difficult,” he said. “When soldiers are hurt and in pain, they are screaming for help. Nobody asks for anything here.
Mr. Svystun takes photos of soldiers’ remains on a cell phone and uploads them to an online portal, so members of the “On the Shield” unit can cross-check the details provided with those found at their base. data on missing soldiers.
On a recent trip, the remains he was carrying were identified in the time it took Mr. Svystun to get his shipment of corpses from a morgue to a nearby logistics center.
“I am glad that he will not be in the morgue for a year and that he will not be buried as unidentified,” Mr. Svystun said. “One more boy is coming home.”
evelina riabenko contributed reporting.