In March, the National Information Bureau (NIB) under the Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine received more than 20,000 complaints about the disappearance of people, capture, deportation, and forced mobilization in the occupied territories of Ukraine.
This was reported by the Ministry of Reintegration on April 8.
Operators of the NIB's 24-hour hotline received more than 12,000 calls in March; almost 800 appeals were received through the online form on the website of the information bureau; approximately 5,000 requests – through chat bots in Telegram and Viber; over 3,000 appeals - to e-mail.
According to the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP), as of November 2022, more than 15,000 people went missing during the war in Ukraine. The commission emphasized that this is a "conservative" estimate, since, according to the authorities, 25,000 people died or went missing in the occupied Mariupol of the Donetsk region alone.
Ukrainian intelligence announced at the end of February 2023 that the Russian Federation was holding more prisoners than Ukraine was holding in captivity - the Russian occupiers. The head of the State Security Service Kyrylo Budanov explained that the reason, in particular, is that Ukraine does not take civilians captive, and in Russia, approximately 40% of Ukrainians held hostage are civilians.
