Russian relatives have submitted more than 50,000 requests for missing servicemen who took part in the war against Ukraine through the project “I Want to Find”. Bohdan Okhrimenko, head of the Secretariat of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, said this in an interview with ArmyInform.
The project emerged after relatives of Russian servicemen began to call the “I want to live” phone line (a center for receiving appeals from Russian servicemen to surrender) with a request to find their missing loved ones. “At first, we created a separate line for such appeals, but later it became clear that this requires a more extensive approach. To date, we have received over 50,000 requests, and these are only those people who are not afraid to contact us,” said Okhrimenko.
At a closed session in the State Duma, the Russian Federation announced 48,000 missing Russian servicemen, although the real numbers are much higher. According to Ukrainian estimates, the total number of missing may exceed 100,000.
According to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, in 2024, the irrecoverable and sanitary losses of the Russian army amounted to 430,790 people, the equivalent of 36 motorized rifle divisions.