"It is very difficult": as families of missing soldiers of the Armed Forces are looking for relatives - NYT
It is reported that on October 16, a demonstration was held in Kyiv, where many Ukrainians demanded from the government the answer about the status of their missing relatives. Lyudmila Marchenko said that her 37-year-old son Andrew entered military service last year and spent a month training in the United Kingdom. He was sent to the front 10 days after his return to Ukraine. The man disappeared during the first battle. "He is my only son. It's very difficult," the woman said.
According to Petro Yatsenko, a representative of the Government Coordination Headquarters for the treatment of prisoners of war is working on providing families with information, but to establish whether they were missing or captured were very difficult. The status of many still remains unclear. According to Yatsenko, Russia does not want to cooperate with the Ukrainian side in this matter.
"The main problem is that Russia does not provide complete information, in particular about civilians whom they hold illegally," he said. The publication writes that many families cling to the hope that their missing sons and men are still alive and captive in Russia. They write letters, visit offices and donate DNA samples. Unfortunately, they are sometimes misled by Russian fraudsters.
According to human rights organizations, about 10,000 Ukrainians are kept by Russia as prisoners of war, but their names are unknown. The Russian Federation refuses to provide complete data on the detainees. Ukraine also does not, as it can damage the process of exchange of prisoners. It should be reminded that on October 27 it was reported that the commander of the BPAK department was killed in the Verbov area.