The Russian social network Vkontakte, which is the equivalent of Facebook, is described as Dmitry Vytovto, a Russian soldier. It is his wife who describes it and does it monthly since June of last year. “Looking for a husband and a father. Help me find someone who knows something,” her post read.
But she received no response to the ad. Her husband is one of tens of thousands of Russian soldiers missing in Ukraine. It is possible that some were held by the Ukrainians, but many probably died on the battlefield.
But when there is no body, relatives cannot bury the person or receive compensation from the Russian state. The reason is that the soldier is not officially registered as fallen.
Novaya Gazeta claims Vytovtov’s post is far from the only one of its kind on Russian social media.
The outlet topped nearly 10,000 posts on Vkontakte describing Russian soldiers. Journalists have identified 1,365 missing soldiers, at least, with this.
But not all relatives publicly advertise missing soldiers, so the number of missing soldiers is believed to be much higher than this number indicates. Sergei Krivenko, the head of the “Citizen” human rights group, said most of those missing are dead, but their bodies have not been found. There are currently 12,000 confirmed deaths, but the number of missing is likely twice as high.
An analysis by Novaya Gazeta shows that the missing soldiers fought for an average of 60 days before disappearing.
