Olena Verbytska, the advisor to the President, reported that Russia is holding over three thousand Ukrainian soldiers captive.

She announced this in an interview with Redaktions Netzwerk Deutschland.

Officially, 3,392 Ukrainian soldiers are considered prisoners of war.

Also, according to her, 15,000 people in Ukraine are considered missing in action. There are many civilians among them.

Verbytska said that the fate of these people is unknown.

“We don’t know what happened to them. Whether they are Russian prisoners of war, were they forcibly removed from the territories occupied by Russia, or perhaps they were killed a long time ago. Such uncertainty is especially difficult for relatives,” she said.

At the end of June, the Russian Ministry of Defense claimed that over 6,000 Ukrainian soldiers were in captivity.

As of the end of December 2022, the Ukrainian side has returned home almost one and a half thousand prisoners of war.

The largest exchange of prisoners of war between the parties took place on September 21. Ukraine released 215 prisoners, of which 124 were officers. They included many defenders of Mariupol, in particular 108 soldiers of the Azov Regiment. 10 foreigners and 5 Ukrainian commanders were also released from captivity.

In exchange for them, Ukraine extradited Viktor Medvedchuk, Putin’s crony, and 55 Russians to Russia.