Ukraine Soldier Found Alive After Being Declared Dead Due to DNA Error

VELYKYI DOROSHIV, Ukraine — Nazar Daletskyi, a soldier with Ukraine’s 24th Separate Mechanized Brigade, walked to the village cemetery on his first day home after nearly four years as a prisoner of war. There, he stood before a grave bearing his name.

Daletskyi, now 46, had been reported missing in action in May 2022 during fighting in eastern Ukraine and officially declared dead in September of that year. In January 2023, remains discovered in a damaged vehicle near Kharkiv underwent genetic analysis. The Kharkiv Scientific Research Forensic Center concluded a 99.99987% match with his mother’s DNA profile, leading the family to hold a funeral and bury the remains as those of Nazar Daletskyi.

Doubts about the identification began to surface in the summer of 2025, when multiple Ukrainian soldiers released in prisoner exchanges reported seeing Daletskyi alive in Russian captivity. Three separate accounts corroborated this claim in July, August, and October. The confirmation came on February 5, 2026, during the 71st prisoner exchange since the start of the full-scale war, which saw 157 Ukrainians repatriated, including 139 held since 2022.

Upon his return to Velyki Doroshiv, in the Lviv region, Daletskyi found his grave had been stripped of the Ukrainian flag that adorned it. The remains initially identified as his were exhumed on February 11th by specialists from the Lviv Regional Prosecutor’s Office for further analysis to determine the identity of the individual originally buried in his name. “Not everyone gets to attend their own funeral,” he reportedly said.

Daletskyi’s return has also raised a complex legal issue. Approximately €295,000 in benefits had been paid to his family based on his declared death in combat. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense stated on February 11th that it has no legal basis to demand the funds be returned, as the payments were made in accordance with the legislation in effect at the time.

To officially regain his legal identity, a court decision is required to formally confirm that Daletskyi is alive. This legal process is currently underway. The investigation into the circumstances surrounding the initial misidentification – the first documented case of its kind since the start of the war in Ukraine – remains open.