In the search for the tens of thousands of missing persons from the deadly Russian-Ukrainian war, there are many blind spots, many things left unsaid and many silences. In Russia, the veil of secrecy means that lots of families still have no news of their relatives who went missing in action. In Ukraine, where the search for the missing is carried out in a much more democratic climate, difficulties remain staggering. Not least of these is the fact that soldiers who died on the battlefield often have no recognizable body left.

On December 4, the Ukrainian health ministry signed an agreement with the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP), an intergovernmental organization based in The Hague (Netherlands), to create a vast centralized data collection system to identify missing persons. The Integrated Data Management System, which will be operational in 2025, will cross-reference data such as DNA, fingerprints and dentition with ante-mortem information (photographs, fractures, tattoos, etc.) and the results of post-mortem examinations by forensic doctors.

Vitali Povstyany, head of the forensics department of the health ministry in Kyiv, makes no secret of the fact that Ukraine has a long way to go. "We've never had a centralized system. Information gathering depended on regional administrations, some of which didn't really bother. Before the Russian invasion, nobody really cared about our department. The war has reminded people that we exist," he said, with a smile.

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