Ukrainian authorities put number of missing soldiers at nearly 7,200

Ukraine’s commissioner for missing persons in special circumstances, Oleg Kotenko, has put the number of Ukrainian soldiers missing in the framework of the war with Russia at about 7,200.

This figure includes members of the Armed Forces, the National Guard, border guards and the Security Service, Kotenko told Ukrainian radio and television Suspilne and was reported by the Ukrinform agency.

According to Kotenko, the Armed Forces have listed some 2,000 missing soldiers, although they leave out of this balance the members, for example, of the Azov Battalion, which is included within the National Guard and whose relatives have hardly been contacted after leaving the Azovstal plant, in Mariupol, where Russian troops besieged them for weeks.

Kotenko has assured that most of the missing soldiers are alive and in captivity, and highlighted the case of a Marine Infantry battalion, who are known to have been transferred to Russia.

“We need to know how many people are there. If there are more than a hundred, then we assume that almost the entire battalion is in captivity. There is still no contact with them, so they are considered missing,” the official said.