Ministry of Internal Affairs: More than 600 bodies of the dead were exhumed in the de-occupied Kharkiv region

More than 600 bodies of dead people have already been exhumed in the de-occupied territories of the Kharkiv region.

The Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, Denys Monastyrskyi, told this on the air of the telethon.

"In fact, we have already exhumed more than 600 bodies of the dead in the Kharkiv region. It is not immediately possible to identify them, there is a problem. In particular, identification is carried out through DNA analysis, special laboratories work. Our international partners just helped us and provided reagents and mobile laboratories so that it could be done quickly. But still, we understand that this work takes weeks, sometimes months, to establish who exactly is tortured," he said.

According to the minister, DNA samples are taken from relatives, they are compared, and only within a certain time the police can establish the identity of the tortured person.

Monastyrskyi also reminded that the Verkhovna Rada has adopted a special law on DNA — it will simplify the procedure for identifying the bodies of the dead.

• At the beginning of September, the Ukrainian Armed Forces launched a counteroffensive in Kharkiv region. Ukrainian troops managed to liberate 421 settlements, including Izyum and Balakliia.
• On September 15, it became known that a mass burial of dead soldiers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and civilians was found near Izyum. According to the State Emergency Service, 447 bodies were recovered from there.