Over 7,000 Ukrainian servicemen remain missing

The Commissioner for Missing Persons in Special Circumstances Oleh Kotenko said this on the air of the "United News" telethon, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"The figure is real, it is slightly over seven thousand, and we expect that people we are looking for as missing are captured. I think that percentage is more related to missing people, it is somewhere between 60-65% - this is our statistics. These people are alive but stay in captivity. The others, unfortunately, are dead," Kotenko said, answering a question about a number of Ukrainian soldiers who are currently considered missing.

According to him, because Ukraine releases many prisoners, they are telling where they were and how many people they saw there. 

"Give or take, we know places where they are being held - both in the Russian Federation and occupied territories, I mean Luhansk and Donetsk regions," Kotenko added.

"We understand a number of prisoners," the Commissioner said.

As reported, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that since February 24, 2022, Ukraine had returned 2,235 people from Russian captivity.