For months, Elvira Kaipova had been unable to hear from her son Rafael, a Russian soldier stationed in Ukraine. In response to her ongoing inquiries about his whereabouts, military officials claimed he was on active duty and therefore unreachable. In late November, she discovered that he had gone missing on Nov. 1 from a Telegram channel that aids military families.
The officer responsible for family liaison in Rafael’s unit, Aleksandr Sokolov, informed her that they had lost contact with her son during a visit to the headquarters in western Russia. When Elvira inquired about how they would search for him, she was told they were unable to do so due to a lack of communication.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, variations of this scenario have occurred repeatedly. According to bereaved families, private organizations that provide assistance, and military analysts, the Russian Ministry of Defense lacks any formal effort to locate missing soldiers. Relatives are left to navigate their own investigation with minimal information from the government.
Even if Russia and Ukraine reach a peace agreement, the search for missing soldiers is expected to last for years or even decades. The defense ministry has not published any statistics on the number of missing soldiers, which military analysts and families believe is because they do not know the exact number. Estimates range from tens of thousands.
Anna Tsivilyova, a deputy minister of defense and a cousin of President Vladimir Putin, stated last November that 48,000 relatives of the missing had submitted DNA samples to help identify remains, despite duplicate requests from some families. In Ukraine, a government project to help locate Russian servicemen captured or killed there has received over 88,000 requests for information.
Experts believe that most missing soldiers likely died in combat and were left on the battlefield. There are not enough teams to collect bodies, and the use of drones makes retrieval too dangerous. Ukrainian and Russian families are still searching for answers and hope for the return of their loved ones.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/03/world/europe/russia-missing-soldiers-ukraine-war.html
