According to information from Kiev, thousands of people have disappeared “under special circumstances” since the war began in February 2022, including numerous civilians. “At the moment, more than 26,000 people are being sought and are considered missing,” said Deputy Interior Minister Leonid Tymchenko on television. 11,000 of the missing are civilians and around 15,000 are military personnel. Interior Ministry spokeswoman Mariana Rewa told the AFP news agency that the statistics are people from whom nothing has been heard “in connection with the hostilities”, including in the areas occupied by the Russian army. This preliminary balance only concerns those Ukrainians whose data could be “officially verified”. The number could therefore still increase.
Kiev does not provide any information about the total number of casualties in the war against Russia. While civilian casualties are reported daily, information about military personnel is not disclosed. The New York Times recently estimated, citing anonymous US government sources, that 70,000 Ukrainian soldiers were killed and up to 200,000 were injured. The Russian loss tally is estimated to be much higher – with 120,000 dead and up to 180,000 injured. However, Russia has significantly larger reserves of potential military personnel.