Ukraine lists 42,000 people as missing

Around 42,000 people are currently missing in Ukraine, an Interior Ministry official said on Wednesday, a figure that includes both soldiers and civilians.

The number had once stood as high as 51,000, Dmytro Bohatiuk, who leads the ministry’s missing persons department, told state news agency Ukrinform.

Russia’s all-out invasion in February 2022 has seen Ukrainians killed in attacks, displaced by fighting and transferred by force to Russian territory.

Around a fifth of Ukraine is occupied by Russia.

The tally of missing declined after thousands of prisoners of war were accounted for, Bohatiuk said.

Another challenge is identifying the dead found on the battlefield.

Bohatiuk said the Defence Ministry does not take genetic samples from the soldiers it sends into the field.