About 10,000 prisoners of war known among 60,000 missing — Interior Ministry

The return of a Ukrainian soldier from Russian captivity. Photo: Vitalii Yurasov

Ukraine has officially confirmed that about 10,000 people are in Russian captivity. In total, more than 60,000 people are considered missing.

This was stated by Artur Dobroserdov, the Commissioner for Missing Persons under Special Circumstances, in an interview with Suspilne.

«There are more than 60,000 people on the wanted list. As for about 10,000, we have confirmation that they are in captivity», said Artur Dobroserdov.

According to him, information about the prisoners is received both through official sources — in particular, the International Committee of the Red Cross and through unofficial channels.

«The main unofficial sources of information are the testimonies of those who have returned from captivity and OSINT searches. Some Russian citizens, military personnel, post information on the Internet, from which we record the fact that people are in captivity», said Artur Dobroserdov.

Therefore, thanks to these unofficial sources, we managed to establish the whereabouts of more than 1,500 missing persons. However, many cases of captivity have not yet been officially confirmed, and this remains a serious problem.

As a reminder, over the course of more than three years of full-scale war, Ukraine has managed to free 4306 defenders and civilians from Russian captivity.

On 19 April, Ukraine and Russia also exchanged prisoners. 277 Ukrainian defenders returned home, including members of the Armed Forces, the National Guard, the State Special Transport Service and border guards.