More than 50,000 inquiries have been submitted by Russians seeking missing soldiers through Ukraine’s "I Want to Find" project, Bohdan Okhrimenko, head of the Coordination Center Secretariat, said in an interview with ArmyInform on Jan. 3.
"These numbers only reflect those unafraid to contact us," Okhrimenko said, adding that there actual number of Russian soldiers missing in action can be much higher.
Initially part of the "I Want to Live" hotline — launched in September 2022 by Ukraine's military intelligence (HUR) to help Russian soldiers surrender — the separate "I Want to Find" project was created to handle inquiries from Russian families about missing soldiers.
Okhrimenko criticized Russia’s lack of effort in recovering or identifying the missing, saying, "Many remain scattered in Ukrainian fields, their remains carried by stray animals. Russia shows no interest in identifying them."
Earlier, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anna Tsivilyova disclosed on Nov. 26 that her ministry received 48,000 DNA test applications from relatives seeking information about missing soldiers.
Speaking at a Duma roundtable, Tsivilyova revealed that relatives' DNA data had been collected and stored in a database, inadvertently providing a rare glimpse into the scale of troops missing in action.
Andrei Kartapolov, head of the State Duma's defense committee, warned against publicizing such figures, saying, "This is sensitive information. When we finalize the documents, we must ensure these figures do not appear publicly."
The General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces reported on Jan. 3 that Russia has lost 793,250 troops since the beginning of its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022.
Kateryna Denisova
(Updated: )
