Mobile DNA labs cut down time taken to identify Ukraine's war dead to several hours

Mobile DNA laboratories Ukraine uses cut down the time taken to identify those killed at war to several hours.

Source: The Independent

Details: Ukraine's use of mobile DNA laboratories makes it possible to make a breakthrough in "science at war", the media states.

Such laboratories, the Independent states, allow studying DNA samples of a killed person in a few minutes. If previously the identification of a body could take several years, thanks to mobile laboratories, the time needed to establish an identity has been reduced to a few hours.

The new DNA machines, provided by Western donors including the French authorities and the Howard G Buffett Foundation in the United States, are being driven around the country in police vans.

The Independent reports that the DNA matching has been slow, with the country’s chief police investigators saying that relying on the pre-war process, which requires sending samples to a handful of machines in the west of the country or even aboard, could have delayed matches by years.

The Independent notes that before the war, it was necessary to send samples to the west of Ukraine or abroad for DNA processing, which could drag out the identification process for years, but results "could be immediate" thanks to the specialised labs. 

"Before, because of the huge number of dead there was a huge queue for DNA analysis in the labs we had available in western Ukraine," explained Serhiy Boliniov, the chief investigator in Kharkiv, in the north-eastern region of the country.

But "that has changed", he said, adding that mobile labs can process DNA samples in just 100 minutes.

It is noted that there are four machines in Kharkiv Oblast, with one stationed in Izium. 

Background: In July, the French Foreign Ministry reported on the transfer to Ukraine of a mobile laboratory for express DNA analysis in the process of investigating war crimes by the Russian Federation.

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