COLUMN: Ukrainian Bodies Are Being Returned with Explosives — Russia Crosses a Line That Nothing Justifies

Maxime Marquette

2026-07-20 15:36:57

How the Ukrainian Police Now Operate

Inspection is now the first step in every repatriation. Before any attempt at identification—before searching for documents, military dog tags, cell phones, or credit cards—police officers check whether the remains pose an explosive risk. This is not an abstract procedure. It is hands-on work, carried out under already trying circumstances by professionals who must simultaneously manage the psychological pressure of working with human remains and the real risk of an explosion.

Once the safety check is complete, the identification process can begin. It involves recording and photographing distinctive marks, tattoos, clothing, and other details. This is followed by forensic analysis, including DNA testing. In the best-case scenario—when the body is well-preserved and accompanied by documentation—identification takes weeks. In most cases, however, it takes about 14 months due to the condition in which the remains arrive after months or even years on the battlefield.

522 bodies, 14 months of waiting, families in limbo

The transfer on June 18, 2026, brought back 522 bodies at once. For the families of these soldiers, every additional day of identification is a day of suspended mourning—an unbearable state of limbo between the certainty of loss and the inability to come to terms with it. The identification process takes an average of 14 months—and this delay is due not only to the number of bodies but also to their condition: partial, mixed, or poorly preserved remains.

The practice of grouping the remains of multiple individuals under a single identification dramatically prolongs this process. When police and medical examiners discover that what was delivered to them as “one body” is actually the remains of two or three different people, the entire identification process must be restarted. Forensic experts then proceed with “segmentation”—a laborious, precise, and psychologically exhausting task—to separate the remains before they can continue with individual identification.

Fourteen months. For a family, that means fourteen months of not knowing whether the body recovered in one of these shipments is that of their son, their brother, or their husband. Fourteen months of living in a limbo that is neither mourning nor hope. Putin has turned the repatriation of bodies—a gesture of civilization—into an instrument of psychological torture for Ukrainian families.

The Legal Framework: An Explicit Violation of the Geneva Conventions

What International Law Says

The 1949 Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols strictly regulate the treatment of the dead in times of war. Article 17 of the Third Geneva Convention requires parties to a conflict to care for their own dead and those of the enemy, to identify them, and to facilitate their repatriation under dignified conditions. The Additional Protocols explicitly prohibit “acts of barbarity” against the bodies of combatants. Concealing explosives in repatriated bodies is not only a violation of the letter of these texts—it is a violation of their spirit, a deliberate perversion of a humanitarian mechanism.

Russia is a signatory to the Geneva Conventions. It is a permanent member of the UN Security Council. It is expected to respect international humanitarian law. But the Putin regime has long since abandoned any pretense of honoring these commitments in its war against Ukraine—as evidenced by deliberate strikes on hospitals, civilian infrastructure, and now the manipulation of the bodies of killed Ukrainian soldiers.

The Implications for Peace Negotiations

These practices have a direct impact on the dynamics of the negotiations between Russia and Ukraine. How can peace be built with a state that uses the bodies of your soldiers as potential weapons? How can you trust a negotiating partner that turns humanitarian exchanges into hostile operations? On June 30, 2026, during a meeting of the UN Security Council, China’s Deputy Permanent Representative Sun Lei “strongly” called on Russia and Ukraine to resume negotiations. The Chinese representative stated that “conflicts do not solve any problems.”

This statement is technically true. But it deliberately ignores a well-documented reality: Russia uses the humanitarian mechanisms themselves—the transfer of bodies—as vehicles for hostility. Negotiating peace with a state that downplays its own casualties, falsifies identities to circumvent its own compensation obligations, and conceals explosives in repatriated bodies—this is no ordinary negotiation. It is a negotiation with an actor that has demonstrated it does not even respect the rules governing the dead in wartime.

Sun Lei spoke of “mutual political will” for peace. I would like to ask him this question directly: How does one demonstrate a political will for peace when one plants explosives in the bodies of one’s dead enemies? It is a rhetorical question, of course. But it illustrates the chasm between China’s diplomatic rhetoric at the UN and the reality of what is happening on the ground.

The Broader Context: Russia and the War of the Dead

A practice that reveals the nature of this regime

Booby-trapped bodies are not an aberration in Russia’s war in Ukraine. They are part of a broader set of practices that reveal the nature of Putin’s regime: deliberate strikes on hospitals and maternity wards, the deportation of Ukrainian civilians to Russia, and the systematic destruction of civilian infrastructure—water, electricity, and heating—targeted to break the resistance of the Ukrainian civilian population. Each practice, taken in isolation, may seem like an exception. Taken together, they paint a coherent strategy of terror and dehumanization.

The fact that Russia sends its own dead soldiers in Ukrainian uniforms—possibly to avoid paying compensation to their families—also reveals something about how Putin’s regime treats its own soldiers. These men sent to die in Ukraine are manipulated even in death: their bodies are used as tools, their identities are falsified, and their families are denied compensation. This regime does not respect its own dead. Why would it respect those of the enemy?

The Impact on Surviving Ukrainian Soldiers

It would be naive to think that the discovery of booby-trapped bodies has no impact on Ukrainian soldiers still alive. Every fighter now knows that if their comrades fall into Russian hands, their bodies could be returned transformed into threats. This is an additional form of psychological pressure in a war where Ukrainian fighters are already subjected to an intensity of stress that is difficult to imagine. According to a June 30, 2026, report by Euromaidan Press, the Ukrainian campaign on Day 1,588 had also resulted in the destruction of nearly 200 Russian air defense systems since the start of the year—a figure that illustrates the intensity of the ongoing fighting.

And yet, Ukraine is holding firm. Soldiers continue to fight, drones continue to strike, and air defenses continue to shoot down Russian missiles. The use of booby-trapped bodies does not break Ukrainian resistance—it makes it more determined. Every documented act of barbarism is yet another reason for every Ukrainian to understand why this war cannot be lost.

I think of those Ukrainian police officers doing this work. Who inspect bodies knowing they could explode in their hands. Who search for traces of identity in partial, mangled remains, in conditions I’d rather not describe. These men and women are doing work that Putin’s Russia has made necessary. Their courage deserves to be recognized.

Russia’s Other Crimes Against Humanity: A Systemic Context

Missing Organs and Tampered Bodies

The practice of booby-trapped bodies is part of a broader pattern of Russian humanitarian violations documented during the exchange of remains. Ukrainian families have reported bodies returning with missing internal organs. Human remains sometimes arrive mixed together—bones and tissues from multiple individuals grouped under a single identification. Each of these practices constitutes a distinct violation of international humanitarian law and represents additional trauma for families awaiting the return of their loved ones.

The discovery, reported by Ukrainian sources, of dead Russian soldiers sent back in Ukrainian uniforms with Ukrainian identification tags illustrates another dimension of this perversion: the alleged objective is to allow the Russian state to avoid paying the legal compensation owed to the families of the killed Russian soldiers. This is a criminal fraud against the Russian families themselves—yet another betrayal by the Putin regime of the men it sends to their deaths for its imperial ambitions.

A toll impossible to quantify precisely

The most recent large-scale exchange, on June 18, 2026, saw 522 Ukrainian bodies repatriated simultaneously. The forensic identification of each one will take an average of 14 months. During this time, their families live in a state of limbo that nothing can alleviate—neither official mourning nor a final burial. The identification process involves DNA experts, medical examiners, police investigators, and psychologists. Ukraine has had to build an entire humanitarian infrastructure to cope with this influx of bodies that have been tampered with or falsified.

Russia claims to have exchanged thousands of Ukrainian bodies since the Istanbul agreements of June 2025. These exchanges are governed by fragile agreements, negotiated under tense conditions, and subject to Moscow’s political whims. Every exchange is a negotiation; every negotiation is a reminder that Russia views the bodies of fallen Ukrainian soldiers as bargaining chips to be used rather than as humanitarian obligations to be honored.

522 bodies in a single exchange. Each with a story, a name, a family. Each potentially booby-trapped. Ukrainian police inspect them one by one, carefully. Because that is exactly what this is: a series of crimes against victims who can no longer speak.

Ukraine Holds Firm: Accountability and International Solidarity

Ukrainian Society Facing an Accumulation of Trauma

For more than four years, Ukrainian society has been absorbing an accumulation of trauma unprecedented for a European democracy in times of modern warfare. Booby-trapped bodies are yet another layer in this edifice of pain. And yet, Ukraine holds firm. Institutions are functioning. The police are doing their job. Medical examiners are doing their job. Families wait with a dignity that commands admiration.

Media coverage of practices such as booby-trapped bodies—as reported by Euromaidan Press, Ukrinform, and other leading media outlets—is part of the West’s support for Ukraine. It tells Ukrainians: the world sees what is being done to you. The world is documenting these events. And every documented Russian practice reinforces the collective conviction that this war cannot end with a Ukrainian surrender—because a surrender would leave these practices unpunished and encourage their repetition.

Toward International Legal Accountability

The documented practices could constitute war crimes under the Rome Statute. The International Criminal Court has already issued arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials for crimes committed in Ukraine. The booby-trapped bodies add to this already substantial case file. Each case documented by Ukrainian police is another piece of evidence in a legal case that, ultimately, must find its way to an international court.

This prospect of accountability is important, even if it seems distant. It upholds the fundamental principle that war crimes have consequences. It tells the perpetrators that their actions are documented, recorded, and preserved. And it tells the victims that their suffering is recorded in a registry that one day aims to become the record of international justice.

The ICC cannot stop a war. It cannot bring back the dead. But it can, over time, set a precedent: that those who decide to trap bodies, falsify identities, or manipulate humanitarian aid—that these people will one day be held accountable. It is a modest victory. But it is a victory nonetheless.

What the West Must Do in Response to These Violations

Documentation as a Legal and Political Weapon

The Ukrainian authorities’ documentation of these practices is essential. Each documented case is potential evidence in the mounting international legal proceedings against Putin’s regime. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has already issued arrest warrants for Putin and other Russian officials for crimes committed in Ukraine. Booby-trapped bodies could serve as additional evidence of Russian war crimes.

Western governments must also maintain diplomatic pressure on Russia to ensure it complies with its obligations under international humanitarian law, even in the context of an active conflict. This is not naivety—it is a legal and moral obligation. Public statements by Ukraine’s allies, UN resolutions, and the International Red Cross’s diplomatic efforts with Russian authorities: every one of these levers must be activated. The documented practices must have consequences—at least in the annals of international law.

Aid to Ukraine Continues Despite Attempts at Intimidation

Russia’s treatment of the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers is part of a broader strategy of intimidation: targeting not only the living, but also the memory and dignity of the dead. This strategy aims to demoralize Ukrainian society, wear down its resilience, and make the cost of the war unbearable. On June 29, 2026, Denmark announced a $670 million aid package for Ukraine—a sign that Western allies understand that Ukrainian resistance must be supported over the long term, not just during moments of media-driven crisis.

Ukraine is not fighting merely for its territory. It is fighting for the right to national existence, to its language, to its culture—and, as this practice demonstrates, for the very dignity of its dead. This is a struggle that deserves the unconditional support of all democracies, regardless of how politically weary their leaders may be. Because what Russia is doing in Ukraine will not remain confined to Ukraine if it is not stopped.

I sometimes say that this war wears me down—not in the sense that I’m losing hope, but in the sense that the accumulation of documented horrors becomes difficult to bear. The booby-trapped bodies are part of that accumulation. But this weariness is nothing compared to what Ukrainians are going through. And that’s enough to remind me why we keep writing, documenting, and speaking out when necessary.

Identifying the Dead: Fourteen Months of Silence Before a First Name

An Identification Process Disrupted by War and Russian Manipulation

It takes an average of fourteen months to identify a fallen Ukrainian soldier. This figure, cited by Ukrainian authorities, is not an abstract statistic. It is the time it takes for a family to receive official confirmation—fourteen months of uncertainty, of forbidden hope, of unresolved grief. This delay is already the result of a high-intensity war, with tens of thousands of deaths and bodies that are sometimes unidentifiable after artillery strikes. But it is exacerbated by documented Russian practices: bodies mixed together, the remains of multiple individuals returned as if they belonged to a single person, and bodies sent without identification documents.

As of June 18, 2026, during the last documented exchange, 522 bodies had been returned by Russia. Each was inspected by Ukrainian police before any further contact. The fact that this inspection is now routine speaks volumes about the Ukrainian authorities’ trust in the humanitarian exchange process: it is nonexistent. Russia has turned the return of the dead into a risky procedure—and Ukraine has adapted, with the cold resolve of those who no longer have a choice.

Families’ Right to Know

Behind every delay in identification, there is a mother waiting. A father who refuses to grieve until he has certainty. A child growing up without knowing whether their parent is dead or missing. International humanitarian law guarantees families the right to know the fate of their loved ones. The Geneva Convention requires belligerent parties to facilitate the identification and repatriation of the dead. Russia does not respect this right—it uses it as an additional tool to exert pressure on a population already exhausted by more than four years of large-scale war.

Ukraine has established DNA identification mechanisms, centralized registries, and dedicated teams. This humanitarian infrastructure, built under the pressure of a conflict unprecedented in Europe since 1945, is a response to a void: the absence of a reliable partner on the other side. Russia does not cooperate on identification. It complicates matters. It confuses the process. It sets traps. And Ukrainian families are paying the price for this policy, fourteen months at a time.

Fourteen months. I cannot let that number pass without pausing to reflect. That is more than a year of not knowing whether your son is dead, a prisoner, or simply lost in the crowd. That is more than a year of living in a state that international law recognizes as unacceptable. Russia is systematically manufacturing suffering, one after another.

Conclusion: The dead, too, deserve dignity—and justice

What This Practice Reveals About Putin’s War

Putin’s Russia has turned the repatriation of bodies—an act of civilization enshrined in international treaties since the 19th century—into a tool of hostility. It has hidden explosives in the bodies of dead Ukrainian soldiers. It has mixed remains to complicate identification. It has sent its own soldiers in enemy uniforms to deceive families and avoid paying compensation. This is a clear statement: for this regime, there is no line that cannot be crossed, no rule to be respected, no humanitarian limit to be honored.

This clarity is painful. But it is useful. It removes any ambiguity about the nature of the adversary that Ukraine and its allies are facing. Peace with such a regime cannot be built on declarations of goodwill or unverifiable promises. It must be based on real security guarantees, robust verification mechanisms, and a Ukraine strong enough to deter any recurrence. In the meantime, the war continues—and with it, the invaluable work of Ukrainian police officers who examine bodies to protect the living.

The Dignity of the Dead as a Political and Moral Issue

Taras Tarasenko, head of investigations for the Kirovohrad Oblast, describes his work simply: “We work as carefully as possible.” ” This sober statement embodies the professional dignity of a state that, even under the most extreme conditions, strives to uphold the rule of law. Faced with a Russia that has abandoned its own standards, Ukraine continues to uphold its own. This, too, is the difference between a democracy and an autocracy. This, too, is what this war is defending.

It is impossible to write about the booby-trapped bodies of Ukrainian soldiers without feeling something akin to shame—the collective shame of our world, which is capable of naming crimes but incapable of stopping them. But Ukraine, for its part, carries on. It investigates. It identifies. It resists. And no one can take that away from it.

By Maxime Marquette, columnist