Since 2014, the war between Ukraine and Russia has been waged with varying degrees of intensity. From the outset of the conflict, Ukraine has received support from the Forensic Unit of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and other organizations, which have helped strengthen the capacity of forensic specialists and of the civilian and military authorities responsible for implementing the law governing the investigation of persons who went missing or died in the conflict.
This project places special emphasis on improving the national inter-institutional mechanism involved in the recovery and identification of the corpses that enter the forensic medicine system, primarily in areas bordering the conflict zones. EAAF has been collaborating on this process since 2015 as a consultant to the ICRC, conducting technical assessments, raising awareness, and training members of the aforementioned institutions.
Training and Capacity Strengthening
From 2015 to the present, the ICRC has engaged EAAF as a consultant for various activities in the framework of this strategy:
-Training of military and volunteer personnel (under the coordination of CIMIC).
-Needs assessment for improving local capabilities.
-Discussions with authorities from the coordinated mechanism for the search for and identification of missing persons amid the conflict that began in 2014 in Ukraine.
-Training and awareness-raising for key stakeholders in the process: forensic physicians, police investigators, the commission on missing persons, military personnel, etc.
In 2018, with support from the ICRC, the Humanitarian Forensic Training Center for Ukraine was inaugurated at the Forensic Medicine Bureau in the city of Dnipro. The center’s main activities include providing training in various areas related to the search for missing persons, the proper identification of corpses, and interaction with family members. Due to an agreement between Ukrainian authorities and the ICRC, a modular initial training program was designed and has been implemented. The training sessions were led by ICRC staff and other experts, including from EAAF.
The training missions requested by the ICRC have been carried out from 2015 to the present, primarily in the cities of Kyiv, Dnipro and Tsibli. They have been intended for members of the technical and investigative team under the Commissioner for Missing Persons in Special Circumstances, as well as for forensic physicians, police investigators and members of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, from various regions of the country. The objective of these trainings was to discuss, at the inter-institutional level, improvements to the system for searching for, recovering and identifying victims of the conflict in the country; communication with and notification of family members; technical-forensic capabilities in the large-scale analysis of human remains and information management. The most recent mission took place in April 2026.
