"It has been confirmed that nearly 2,000 civilians are being held captive in Russia," said the ombudsman

It has been officially confirmed that 1,978 Ukrainian civilians are being held captive in Russia, but the actual number of hostages may be significantly higher. In addition, more than 16,000 civilians are listed as missing in the registry of missing persons.

This was announced during a press conference by Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian Parliament’s Commissioner for Human Rights.

According to him, the figure of 1,978 refers only to verified civilians for whom there is confirmed data.

“According to our information, there are 1,978 verified civilians being held captive in Russia. We clearly understand that there are also unverified civilian hostages remaining in Russia. As for their number—we can only guess,” Lubinets noted.

The Ombudsman emphasized that there are currently more than 16,000 civilians listed in the registry of missing persons, and it is currently unknown how many more Ukrainians Russia is illegally holding without official confirmation.

At the same time, on June 27, Ukraine managed to secure the release of seven more civilians from Russian captivity; they had been detained by Russian military forces in 2022.

According to the latest data from the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, 9,606 Ukrainians—both military personnel and civilians—have been returned from Russian captivity over the past four years.

Earlier, Interet reported that at least 395 people had been abducted in the newly occupied territories of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, 103 of whom were members of the Crimean Tatar community.

This summer, Russian occupiers in the Kherson region abductedZhanna Kiselova, the editor of a local newspaper, from her own apartment in the temporarily occupied city of Kakhovka for the second time. Russian security forces first took her away in September 2022 and “held her in a basement for nearly a month.” Her current whereabouts remain unknown.

According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, at least 177 Ukrainian prisoners have died inRussian captivitysince the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. According toViktoria Tsymbaliuk,a representative of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War,the longer prisoners spend in Russian prisons, the closer they are to death. She also noted that due to the lack of international oversight, the actual number of deaths in Russian prisons is likely much higher.

Андрій Колісніченко