Ukrainian serviceman Bohdan Vovk was captured after his family buried him in May 2025. The terrible mistake was soon confirmed by an examination..

Now the defender’s family is looking forward to seeing him at home. Suspilne reports this..

The incident occurred in the village of Gumenets, Lviv region. The military cousin Natalya Golova said that Bogdan Vovk’s funeral took place on May 23, but a few days later she saw a video where he was in Russian captivity, and soon received official confirmation of this fact.

The woman noted that after watching the video she immediately contacted the Coordination Headquarters, the police and the Red Cross, and already in June Russia added him to its lists.

As part of the investigation, the buried body was exhumed and a DNA sample was taken from Vovk’s brother, which confirmed that another person was buried in May 2025.

“Personally, I no longer needed DNA confirmation, because I already had all the confirmation from the Coordination Headquarters that Bogdan was in captivity. I just wanted the body to be exhumed and the body of the serviceman that we buried to go to his home,” explained Natalya Golova.

For his part, the deputy head of the GUNP in the Chernihiv region, Edgar Papikyan, said that molecular genetic examinations confirmed the coincidence of biological samples from one of the bodies with the DNA profile of a close relative of the deceased. “The body was exhumed and handed over to the family for further burial,” he added..

It is worth noting that the Lviv regional administration reported in May 2025 that 33-year-old Bogdan Vovk died on May 16 during a combat mission near the village of Obukhovka, Glushkovsky district, Kursk region, Russian Federation.

Let us remind you that on March 5, during the last exchange of prisoners of war, 200 Ukrainians returned home. Among those released are defenders of various directions of the front, in particular defenders of Mariupol. Many of them have been in Russian captivity since 2022.

OVOZ. UA has collected name lists of Ukrainian defenders released from Russian captivity. You can get acquainted with it using the link.