Since the beginning of the invasion, the Russians have kidnapped 8,800 Ukrainians, more than 10,000 have gone missing

In Ukraine, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, almost 8,800 civilians have become victims of enforced disappearances, and 10,200 people are considered missing.

This is reported by the Main Investigative Department of the National Police. Thus, according to the data of the National Police of Ukraine, from February 24, 2022 to June 6, 2023, investigators initiated 16,000 criminal proceedings on the facts of illegal deprivation of liberty and enforced disappearance of almost 8,800 civilians.

Also, investigators of the National Police of Ukraine initiated 7,300 criminal proceedings on the facts of the disappearance of 10,200 people.

“In the conditions of war, the National Police of Ukraine conducts all the necessary investigative (search) and procedural actions to establish the whereabouts of missing and illegally deprived persons, which can be carried out in the conditions of an armed conflict,” the police emphasized.

As reported, in May 2023 the Commissioner for Missing Persons Oleg Kotenko informed that there are more than 23,000 names in the Unified Register of Persons Missing Under Special Circumstances. At the same time, the secretariat of the Commissioner for Missing Persons under Special Circumstances mentions a much smaller number of missing persons – about 7,000 people: both military and civilians, as well as those who have disappeared since 2014.

According to Kotenko, since the end of May 2022, thanks to the work of the secretariat of the commissioner for missing persons under special circumstances, 8,000 Ukrainians have been found.

Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said on June 10, during an action dedicated to the liberation of Ukrainian citizens from Russian captivity, that there are currently about 22,000 Ukrainian civilians in Russian captivity.