Lubinets: No authority can currently decide on returning funds paid to family of fighter mistakenly declared dead
Ukraine's Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets said there is no mechanism for action regarding the funds paid to the family for a fighter who was considered dead, but later returned from captivity. He said this, commenting on the case of Nazar Daletsky, who was considered dead based on the results of a DNA examination.
"We will figure out how it could have happened that a false DNA examination was conducted... so that similar stories do not happen again in the future... No one at the moment, in my opinion, can make a decision on whether or not to return the funds... as an institution, we will insist that the rights of our hero... are not violated, as well as the rights of his family," the ombudsman said during the telethon.
Lubinets believes that the family received the funds legally – at the time of payment, Daletsky was considered dead. He added that this created a new situation for which the state does not yet have a clear mechanism for action.
"That is why this case should become the basis for developing fair and understandable procedures to protect the Defenders and their families," he said.
Lubinets also noted the need to exhume the body buried in Daletsky's place and conduct additional examinations.
Earlier, the representative of the Ombudsman in Lviv region, Taras Podvirny, stated that "theoretically" Daletsky's family must return the state's payment of UAH 15 million for the death of a serviceman, Suspilne reported.
"The family must return the funds paid by the state – a one-time cash payment, as it is officially called, for the death of our serviceman. Therefore, this is definitely a legal precedent that will be resolved. Now the culprits will be found out, who made a mistake and how, because we understand that DNA is extremely accurate," he said during a session of Lviv Regional Council.
Daletsky was considered dead for a long time, the family was informed that this happened in Kharkiv region in the autumn of 2022. In early February 2025, Daletsky returned to Ukraine as part of a prisoner exchange.