Russia Authority: Around 42,000 people missing in Ukraine

SDA

17.7.2024 - 08:52

According to the Ministry of the Interior, around 42,000 soldiers and civilians are missing in Ukraine. Photo: Efrem Lukatsky/AP
According to the Ministry of the Interior, around 42,000 soldiers and civilians are missing in Ukraine. Photo: Efrem Lukatsky/AP
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According to the Ministry of the Interior, around 42,000 people are currently missing in Ukraine, which has been attacked by Russia. This includes soldiers and civilians. The number had been even higher at 51,000 missing in the meantime, the head of the department responsible, Dmytro Bohatjuk, told the state news agency Ukrinform in Kiev. However, the bodies of around 4,000 soldiers missing in action were later found and identified. 3000 missing soldiers were found alive. In many cases, these were prisoners of war, said Bohatjuk.

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The difficulty in identifying the dead is that the Ministry of Defense does not take genetic samples from the soldiers it sends into the field. In other security agencies such as the police, national guard or border guards, this problem has largely been solved with the help of international partners and the Red Cross, said the representative of the Ministry of the Interior.

Ukraine has been fending off a large-scale Russian invasion for almost two and a half years. Around a fifth of its territory is occupied by Russia.