In a military cemetery in Kyiv, hundreds of crosses mark graves. The graves are for unknown Ukrainian soldiers. Each cross says "unknown defender of Ukraine." It also has an ID number. One grave now has a photo. The photo shows Ihor Yalynych. He was a soldier missing since 2022. His children are Stanislav and Oleksandra. They found him after four years of searching.

Ihor Yalynych died in April 2022. He died in eastern Ukraine. His body was in occupied territory until September 2022. The family had problems with bureaucracy. A police file was lost. This delayed DNA testing for over two years. Stanislav gave a DNA sample six months ago. A match came two months later.

Ukraine buries unidentified soldiers. Refrigerated storage was full. The national cemetery was not finished. More than 300 unknown soldiers now lie there. Veterans Affairs Minister Natalia Kalmykova said the state holds the flag of each unknown soldier. It holds the flag until identification. Three soldiers were first buried as unknown. Now they are identified.

Identification is slow. Many soldiers gave no DNA samples early in the war. About half of Ukraine's troops have now given samples. Over 40,000 samples from unidentified bodies are registered. Most samples match with relatives' samples. Forensic experts say the work will continue. It will continue long after the war ends.