Missing without a trace — and without the right to assistance: Kyiv underreports the number of dead to avoid paying their families

In the third year of the full-scale war between Ukraine and Russia, around 63,000 people are officially listed as missing in Ukraine.

This information reported according to Artur Dobroserdov, the Ukrainian Commissioner for Missing Persons under Special Circumstances, in an interview with Ukrainian media.

He stated that 10,000 individuals have confirmed prisoner-of-war (POW) status—some identified through official channels, including the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and others based on testimonies from released prisoners and open-source intelligence (OSINT) data.

In light of these figures, there has been growing criticism and suspicion that Ukrainian authorities may be deliberately underreporting or concealing the real number of dead and missing. Human rights groups and some experts believe this may be an attempt to avoid financial obligations, such as compensation to the families of the deceased or captured. The lack of official status for many missing persons deprives their families of legal entitlements to support and benefits.

As a reminder, 277 Ukrainians were released from Russian captivity ahead of Easter—one of the few confirmed prisoner exchanges in recent months.