Ukraine receives record number of requests from families of missing Russian soldiers in January
Pravda Ukraine
In January 2025, the Ukrainian project I Want to Find received a record 8,548 requests from families of missing Russian soldiers, marking a 22% increase compared to the previous month.
Source: Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War on Telegram
Quote: “A record number of requests were submitted to the I Want to Find project in January this year. A total of 8,548 applications were received seeking information about missing servicemen of the aggressor state’s army.”
Details: Since the project’s launch, families of Russian soldiers have filed over 60,000 requests to locate missing servicemen. January saw the highest number of requests ever recorded, with figures continuing to rise steadily.
As of January 2025, 1,790 Russian soldiers have been confirmed as prisoners of war, with 408 of them already exchanged for Ukrainian defenders. However, these figures reflect only cases submitted through the project and do not represent the total number of Russian POWs.
For reference: I Want to Live, a sister project of I Want to Find, is a Ukrainian government-run project designed to help soldiers of the Russian and Belarusian Armed Forces surrender safely. The project was launched in September 2022 by Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, which operates with the support of Ukraine’s Defence Ministry and DIU.
Background:
- Over 210 Russian soldiers surrendered voluntarily to Ukrainian captivity during the first year of the I Want to Live project’s operation.
- In March 2023, almost 10,000 people from Russia and temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine contacted the project, stating their intention to surrender.
- As of May 2024, the project received over 35,000 applications, mostly from serving Russian military personnel, with 260 people already surrendering to Ukraine with the project’s help.
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