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Over 144,000 Russian Families Seek Missing Soldiers Through Ukraine’s “Want to Find” Project
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A total of 144,138 requests from relatives of Russian soldiers missing in action have been submitted to Ukraine’s Want to Find project, run by the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War.
According to the Headquarters on November 4, this figure is significantly lower than the real number of missing Russian troops, as not all families reach out to the Ukrainian initiative. Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, the Kremlin has ignored both the scale of its losses and the growing number of missing soldiers, forcing families to search for their loved ones independently through Ukrainian channels.
In October 2025 alone, the project received 9,243 new requests—an average of about 300 per day.
Using information provided through the platform, families can confirm whether their relatives are prisoners of war or deceased and demand that the Russian government engage in prisoner exchanges. Since the project’s launch in January 2024, the whereabouts of 3,017 Russian soldiers have been confirmed in Ukrainian captivity, with 1,922 already exchanged for Ukrainian defenders.
However, the statement notes that the actual number of Russian prisoners of war is much higher, as many families remain unaware of the project and have not yet submitted requests.
In October, the Want to Find project confirmed the captivity of 159 Russian servicemen whose families had filed inquiries. Among them were not only Russian citizens but also individuals from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Belarus, and even Egypt—further confirming earlier reports from Ukraine’s I Want to Live project that Russia is actively recruiting foreign mercenaries to fight in Ukraine.
According to Headquarters, only 2% of those confirmed as prisoners in October had higher education. More than half had only completed secondary school, while some never finished primary education. The project noted that this low educational level is unsurprising, as less-educated citizens are easier to persuade to sign contracts with Russia’s Ministry of Defense and be sent to war in Ukraine.
Just three of the confirmed prisoners cited “patriotism” as their motivation for joining the war. The most common reason was financial—42% said they were motivated by money, while 25% joined to avoid criminal prosecution or have their sentences cleared.
Earlier, Russia reportedly combined the remains of its own soldiers with those of fallen Ukrainian defenders during a recent repatriation operation carried out under the new exchange procedure.
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