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More than 7,000 Ukrainian servicemembers are currently considered missing, Oleh Kotenko, the commissioner for missing persons, said on April 18.
According to the Ukrainian official, about 60-65% of missing persons usually turn out to be in captivity, while the rest might no longer be alive.
"We hope those people we are looking for as missing persons are indeed captured (rather than dead)," Kotenko said on national television, as cited by Ukrainian media outlet New Voice.
Since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022, Ukraine has brought back 2,235 prisoners of war from Russian captivity, President Volodymyr Zelensky reported on April 18.
Defense Minister: Ukraine’s military casualties lower than Turkey earthquake death toll
“We have casualties, of course, because we are at war. But they are critically smaller than the Russian ones,” Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov told Spanish newspaper La Razon, adding Russia is using its soldiers as “cannon fodder.”
The Kyiv Independent news desk
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