Oleh Kotenko, Commissioner for Persons Missing under Special Circumstances, said that in Ukraine more than 7,000 soldiers are considered missing.
He announced this in a comment to Suspіlne, Ukrainian News Agency reports.
"If we are talking about the military, then let's understand who the military is. There is the Armed Forces of Ukraine, there is the National Guard, there are border guards, there is the SSU and these are different institutions. They are not included in the figure given by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The Armed Forces of Ukraine give data on 2,000 missing military. Our call center has approximately 7,200 people. For example, the Azov Regiment is the National Guard and they also have people missing. They did not get in touch with their relatives when they left Azovstal," Kotenko said.
According to him, most of the missing military are in captivity.
As an example, the Ombudsman cites the military of Battalion 1 of Brigade 36.
"We know they were taken to Russia. First, you need to understand how many people there are. If there are more than a hundred of them, then we understand that almost the entire battalion is in captivity. There is still no connection with them, so they are considered missing. Sooner or later, they'll be on the exchange list and come home. This is the case when we know for sure that the missing are alive," he said.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, on June 29, during the exchange of prisoners with Russia, Ukraine returned 144 military personnel, including 95 defenders who held the defense at the Azovstal metallurgical plant.
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