Evidence, identification and burial
Why are exhumations so important?
Exhumations can locate graves, determine the minimum number of victims, document injuries and sometimes restore names through forensic and genetic work. They also allow families and communities to bury the dead with dignity. They do not by themselves answer every question about command responsibility or the total scale of a campaign, but they provide evidence that cannot be replaced by political declarations.
What investigators can establish
Archaeologists and forensic specialists can identify the boundaries of a grave, the number and arrangement of remains, age and sex profiles, personal objects and traces of trauma. Ammunition, tools, clothing and the position of bodies may help reconstruct how people were killed and buried. DNA comparison can sometimes connect remains with living relatives, although preservation and the lack of reference samples limit results. Every conclusion must be documented through a chain of custody and specialist reports.
What exhumations cannot prove alone
A grave can establish deaths and injuries, but usually does not identify who issued an order or the full political purpose of the operation. Command responsibility requires documents, testimony, unit movements and comparison with other events. The absence of a recovered body does not prove that a reported victim survived, because graves may have been destroyed, moved or remain undiscovered. An excavated minimum should therefore not automatically be treated as the final total for an entire locality.
The human and religious dimension
For relatives, the central question is often not terminology but whether a parent, child or grandparent can be found and buried under a name. A marked grave creates a place for mourning and transfers remains from an anonymous pit into a protected cemetery. Different religious traditions require consultation with families and clergy about examination and reburial. The dignity of the dead should remain separate from current bargaining over monuments or diplomatic disputes.
The situation in 2026
In June 2026 the Ukrainian authorities authorised exhumations in Ostrówki and Wola Ostrowiecka, following renewed search work and earlier excavations in 1992, 2011 and 2015. The new fieldwork began on 13 July 2026 and IPN reported at least 38 individuals exposed in one mass grave by 21 July, with further work continuing. These operations are important both for individual identification and for testing earlier estimates of the burial sites. Because the work is ongoing, published numbers should be dated and updated rather than presented as final.