Ukraine has said it has identified nearly 37,000 people, including military personnel, who have been reported missing since the beginning of the Russian invasion in February 2022, and warned that the real figure could be much higher.
It is difficult to calculate the exact number of missing because Russian forces still occupy about a fifth of the country, and neither side regularly publishes data on military casualties.
“Nearly 37,000 people are considered missing, including children, civilians and the military. These numbers could be much higher,” Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said, according to France 24.
Lubinets said Ukraine and the Red Cross had identified about 1,700 people “illegally captured” by Russia, whom he accused of “kidnapping civilians” since 2014, when war with Moscow-backed separatists first broke out in the country’s east.
Human rights groups have accused Russia of enforced disappearances and abductions of children in the occupied territories, which the Kremlin has denied.
Large parts of Ukrainian territory have remained under Russian control since the start of the war, which has destroyed entire towns and cities and claimed the lives of thousands of people.
The United Nations human rights office said in a March report that at least 10,810 people have been killed since the start of the Russian invasion, including more than 8,000 in areas controlled by Ukraine.
Photo ©️ File photo
