“They opened the coffin - and it’s not our Kostya”: the defender’s family is looking for relatives of an unknown fighter, whom they brought home instead of their son

In the village of Kamenka, Zhytomyr region, they were supposed to say goodbye to those who died in the war against the Russian invaders fighter Konstantin Kozlovets. However, the night before, a coffin was brought to the parental home, and when the relatives saw the face of a warrior, they were shocked, because it was a serviceman completely unfamiliar to them. Until recently, they hoped that their Kostya was alive and an unfortunate mistake, but after a few hours, the morgue staff confirmed that there had been a mix-up and, unfortunately, the body of the defender was with them. Now the family of 29-year-old Konstantin Kozlovets is preparing for the most terrible day of their lives and asks all those who are not indifferent to help recognize the warrior, the coffin with whom they brought home.

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- We still cannot believe what happened. In recent years, our family has already had to go through many trials, here again grief, - told relative of the deceased Roman Marinchuk. - Konstantin is my wife’s brother. A few months ago, he decided to go to defend the country from the occupiers, he already had experience in the army, because he was doing military service. He was called from the village of Kadomka in the Kiev region, where he lived with his mother since childhood. In January, the exercises ended and the fighters were sent to the east. Kostya served as the squad leader of the airmobile platoon of military unit A0641.

The last place of service was Belogorovka, Luhansk region. On April 25, we last spoke with Konstantin. We knew that hell was going on there due to heavy shelling, so we asked him to be careful and pray. He replied that it was really hard and added: “I pray. When they say on the radio that a flight is underway, I fall to my knees and ask God to save me. And in seconds, a mine flies at the dugout and does not explode. ” I have this audio recording. More than once Kostya shared with us that the Lord protects them. But this time, unfortunately, it didn’t work. As far as I know, the occupiers bombed their position and they dug in elsewhere. Probably had to go for provisions. And at that time, the Russian military spotted the Ukrainian fighters and covered the mortars. Several soldiers were injured, and there were casualties.

“Mom cried and repeated all the time “This is not my son”

- How did it happen that a coffin with another warrior was brought to your house, and how did you survive it?

- On May 1, at 10 o’clock in the morning, my wife, who gave birth to a daughter just two months ago, was informed about the death of her brother from the Obukhov district military enlistment office. They asked if the mother herself was at home, to which the wife replied that she was. They asked where her father was, she said that he had died a year ago. We asked to wait for us to come to my mother, because she simply would not survive such news. Moreover, on that day it was 30 years since the wife’s parents got engaged, so one can only imagine the state of the mother, who mourned her beloved husband every day. Already when my wife and I were on the spot, employees of the military registration and enlistment office arrived, announced the sad news for us with the delivery of a family notice of the death of a military man. Screams throughout the village, pain, tears.

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The first thing that frightened me was that they brought incorrectly executed documents, which we refused to accept and were told to recycle. That was done. Then we were asked where the burial place of the deceased would be. Our answer was that at home, next to the father of the Zhytomyr region. Employees of the military registration and enlistment office noted that the body was in the morgue of the city of Dnipro and that they would bring it and bury it the next day. We wanted to make sure if our Konstantin was really, we were informed that the coffin would be opened and it was definitely him. All relatives were notified, the next day the body was not brought. After that, I was informed that on May 5 at 18.30 the body would be brought.

The whole village was waiting for the funeral cortege. People were on their knees, lined with flowers … They put up a portrait, lit candles. Almost everything was ready for burial - bought wreaths, ordered a loaf, a branch, because he was single. Only in the morning it remained to dig a hole in the cemetery. When the coffin was brought into the house, of course, we, as relatives, wanted to see our Konstantin. The coffin was opened, and the face was covered with a handkerchief. When her mother picked her up, she started hysterical. She cried and kept repeating “This is not my son.” Everyone who was present at that moment said the same thing. Kostya’s face is of a different shape, he is larger in physique, his hair is not the same, his teeth … We called a forensic expert to the place, to whom we gave all the explanations.

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It’s hard to imagine what happened to us. Because different thoughts were swarming in my head - God forbid they didn’t recognize our Konstantin, or they gave it to another family, or they were already buried in another city. Or he is generally alive, wounded or somewhere in captivity. For during the years of the war everything happened! Therefore, we had a glimmer of hope to the last.

“I wrote a post on the social network, because I understood that this unknown warrior was also expected”

Meanwhile, I wrote a post on my page on the social network, because I had no right to remain silent. I understood that this unknown warrior was also someone’s son, brother or husband… That they were also waiting for him, perhaps not knowing that he was no longer there. And each of our heroes must be returned home and buried with honors. And the resonance did its job. Having quickly responded to the post, the mortuary workers from Dnipro informed me that a terrible mistake had occurred and did not even imagine what we had experienced. According to them, they have an unidentified body and a photo of it was sent to my wife. She found out that this is still our Kostya. Nearby was his wooden cross, the clothes that he wore, although he had a little overgrown beard in the war. But his facial features and physique.

- Where is the coffin with the unknown fighter now?

- They came from the morgue and took him away. Where they were taken, we do not know. But we really want people to help us identify this hero as soon as possible.

We are waiting for our Kostya to bury him. I created a petition to award him the title of Hero of Ukraine posthumously, because he was at the forefront, 100 meters from the enemy. He did not leave them to the last and courageously repulsed the enemy troops.

At the beginning of 2022, our family experienced a terrible grief. The father of the hero Nikolai Kozlovets died. He, as part of the 72nd separate mechanized brigade, defended the independence of Ukraine since March 2014, the foreman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was awarded the Order “For Courage” III degree. But on December 28, 2021, he, as a passenger in a car, had an accident and died in the hospital a few weeks later.

Earlier, FACTS told the story of a soldier who died in the bunkers of Azovstal: “I was told that there was a DNA match and that this was my mother.”