A Soldier's Shocking Return: Learning He Had Been Declared Dead and Buried.

Ukrainian Soldier, Freed from Captivity, Discovers He Was Presumed Killed

According to TSN.ua: Nazar Daletskyi, a Ukrainian soldier released from Russian captivity, was met with the stunning news of his own 'funeral' upon crossing the border from Belarus. A resident of Velykyi Doroshiv village in the Kulikiv community of Lviv district, Daletskyi had been officially listed as killed in action since September 2022. In 2023, a burial was held after a case of mistaken identity, inflicting profound emotional trauma on his family and loved ones. This case highlights the immense human cost and bureaucratic challenges of the ongoing conflict.

Homecoming and Exhumation

During the first prisoner exchange in 2026, Nazar Daletskyi finally returned to Ukraine. At the Belarus-Ukraine border, officials pulled him aside to verify his identity against a photograph.

"They then said, 'Congratulations, you've been born again. We buried you back in '23.' For me, it was a shock,"

In February 2026, an exhumation was carried out in Velykyi Doroshiv of the remains previously identified as Nazar Daletskyi. This incident underscores the severe consequences of errors in the process of identifying the war dead, which can have a devastating impact on the living. The ordeal of Nazar Daletskyi has become a stark symbol of the war's tragedy and its far-reaching effects on Ukrainian families.

This situation illustrates not only the individual trauma suffered by Daletskyi but also the systemic issues faced by military families in wartime. Mistakes in casualty identification can lead to irreversible emotional damage, inflicting deep pain and suffering on relatives. Such cases emphasize the critical need to improve systems for identifying the fallen, a crucial task in the context of the war in Ukraine and its profound societal impact.