Russia records 20,000 claims to declare people dead or missing last year, marking 2.5-fold surge, media reports
Russian courts received 20,000 claims in 2024 seeking to declare individuals missing or dead, marking a two-and-a-half increase from previous years, independent media outlet Mediazona reported on Feb. 4.
Before the full-scale war, Russian courts handled approximately 8,000 such cases annually. The surge in filings, which began in mid-2024, represents the first significant rise in missing persons cases since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The figures hint at mounting Russian losses during the full-scale invasion, which various estimates place between 600,000 and 840,000 killed and wounded. Moscow does not publish its official casualty figures.
According to Mediazona, most of the claims last year were initiated by Russian military unit commanders who sought to remove missing soldiers — presumed dead but lacking official confirmation — from personnel rosters. This process allows units to recruit replacements.
Families do not need to consent to these legal declarations, which often leaves them without financial support or clear information about their relatives' fate, the outlet wrote.
The exact number of missing Russian soldiers remains unknown, as courts routinely withhold applicants' names and avoid publicizing rulings. In 2024, an estimated 12,000 additional cases were recorded beyond the usual peacetime figures.
Martin Fornusek
More than 50,000 inquiries have been submitted by Russians seeking information about missing soldiers through Ukraine's "I Want to Find" project, Bohdan Okhrimenko, head of the Coordination Center Secretariat, said on Jan. 3.
Initially launched in September 2022 as part of the "I Want to Live" hotline, which helps Russian soldiers surrender, the project was expanded to address requests from families searching for missing troops.
Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anna Tsivilyova disclosed on Nov. 26 that her ministry had received 48,000 DNA test applications from relatives hoping to locate missing soldiers.
Speaking at a Duma roundtable, Tsivilyova revealed that the DNA data was stored in a database, inadvertently providing a rare glimpse into the scale of Russian casualties.
Andrei Kartapolov, head of the State Duma's defense committee, cautioned against publicizing such figures. "This is sensitive information. When we finalize the documents, we must ensure these figures do not appear publicly," he said.
According to the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces, Russia has lost 842,930 troops since launching its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022.
Tim Zadorozhnyy
