"Wait, he's not on the list."
Volunteers from Moscow have received over two thousand requests in three months to search for missing persons in the war in Ukraine.
During this same period, thanks to the work of the Telegram group and interaction with the Rostov morgue, the names of 180 people from the list of missing persons were identified, of whom 23 were found to be alive, and the bodies of the rest were able to be buried by their relatives.
Our boys lie there, no one needs them...
I don't believe it, my son has been under the rubble for four months, and we have the coordinates, but no one is looking for him," Evdokia Geroeva wrote in the VKontakte group "Attention, SVO Search!" (Search for missing military personnel, mobilized and contract soldiers in Donbas (LPR, DPR, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions).
"Evdokia, bodies are constantly being searched for," replies the public's owner, Evgeny.
"Evgeny, that's not true. Our son hasn't been pulled out of the trench near the 'road to Bakhmut' since May 10th, and no one's doing anything. Our boys, who gave their lives for their country, are lying there, useless to anyone!" Galina Porshneva exclaims indignantly.
“For the third month now, we have no idea where our child is; no one is giving us any information,” says Tatyana.
"According to his fellow soldiers, my son went missing on March 18, 2023. Command is silent, and other agencies are sending me formal replies, with no specifics. They talk beautifully, but when the worst happens, the family is left alone with their grief, and there are no payments," Alexander laments.
“My beloved has been missing since September,” Natalya Rakhimova joins the conversation.
These are typical quotes from social networks.
Most people simply don't understand what to do, where to write, or who to demand assistance from. As a result, people turn to online resources, where they receive help faster than from the main agency responsible for all of this, the Russian Ministry of Defense. On the Ministry of Defense's website, a search for "missing in action" and "missing in action" yields posts about those missing in the Great Patriotic War. In the special "Questions" section, which collects answers on the topic of "Special Operation in Ukraine," searching for the same keywords yields "Results for: missing in action - Nothing found." A similar result is found when searching for "Hotline." However, the main page lists the telephone number 117 for questions about "special military operations."
"We'll look for it ourselves..."
All search requests begin with the same words: "help me find." There are hundreds, thousands of posts.
Oksana Klimenyeva from Novosibirsk has been looking for a common-law husband since April 24 of this year.
"Please help find Roman Yuryevich Myslevsky, born November 9, 1973. He volunteered in October 2022 from Yurga. He was reported missing in action on March 13, 2023. He last contacted on March 9, 2023. Call sign "Chaga." He was stationed in the Krasno-Lemansky direction. All that is known about him is military unit 21005. I would be grateful for any useful information."
Three days after a phone conversation in early March, according to the Siberian woman, Roman was reported missing. She says she doesn't really know what happened or where.
"We don't know what to do. Everywhere we get the same answer: 'Wait, he's not on the list.' We've made an inquiry to the Ministry of Defense. We've contacted the unit where he was picked up, spoken to his fellow soldiers and commanders—no one's giving us a definitive answer. It's all very strange. I spoke to him on the phone on March 9th, and since March 12th they've been MIA (missing in action – ed.), and they haven't really explained why."
49-year-old Roman Myslevsky He signed a contract as a volunteer to participate in a special operation last October for four months and should have returned to Siberia long ago.
The search for Myslevsky was initiated by his blood relatives, who had not received his "combat" body count for March. His common-law wife joined them on April 10. At the request of her commander, the missing man's biological daughter took a DNA test at the Yurga military registration and enlistment office. Volunteers, who have been assisting in the search for missing persons since March 2023, informed Oksana that there were no DNA matches at the Rostov-on-Don morgue or in the Donbas. Two and a half weeks later, the relatives called the Ministry of Defense, where they were informed that no DNA match had been found.
"The military unit knows nothing at all, we're just looking ourselves, using every possible avenue. I made a request to Ukraine, in case of a prisoner, and I got two negative answers. No one moved at all, except the volunteers we contacted..."
Oksana provided the email address cta-bureau@icrc.org, where she made inquiries about her husband's fate in Ukrainian captivity.
"I sent my full name and date of birth to this address. They don't respond right away either. A woman from the Rostov group, who is also searching for a missing person, shared this address with me. It was there that I found information about payments and prisoners."
"You don't even know that your fighter went missing in mid-February? They say there are special people."
A resident of Orenburg Davlet Sarsangaleev He published a simple post without a photo on June 1st, looking for his son.
"Please help me find my son, Baurzhan Davletovich Sarsangaleev, born July 20, 1996, 228th Yekaterinburg Motorized Rifle Regiment, contract soldier, military unit 22316, 3rd Battalion, 4th Company, badge number 282403. We have been out of contact with him since January 26th. We cannot find him. Please let me know if anyone knows anything about him. He last contacted me on January 26, 2023. He was stationed near Kremennaya in Ukraine. Sincerely, Father Davlet."
Four members of the Orenburg Sarsangaleyev family—the father and three sons—went off to fight. One son, 26-year-old Baurzhan, has been missing since late January.
According to his father, he called the Ministry of Defense and the Moscow Human Rights Commissioner, who promised to file a complaint with the Prosecutor General's Office. He also visited his military unit. At the Yekaterinburg military enlistment office, where Bauyrzhan volunteered, he was told they did not have the authority to search for missing persons.
"They said there were some special people who were supposed to be looking. They didn't even know he'd gone missing back in February," Davlet shares. "I told them, 'How can you not even know your fighter went missing in mid-February?' The guys who were there told me my son had gone missing in action. They sent a photo and asked, 'Is this your son?' Mine. They said he'd been killed in action, call and find out.' That's when we started searching everywhere."
— Is there confirmation from the military unit that he died?
"There's nothing from the military unit: no confirmation that he's missing, no confirmation that he's dead; they don't even know themselves. One major quietly wrote to me, asking for forgiveness and telling me the whole truth: that my son was indeed killed during a fierce firefight near Kremennaya in the LPR in mid-February. Later, Ukrainians called me from a Russian number. I gave the number to the military unit, and they told me they wouldn't call, like we were negotiating with criminals. I told them they actually asked me to take the number to the military registration and enlistment office and that they would negotiate the return of the body. I gave the number to the human rights ombudsman in Moscow, and they were supposed to pass it on to the Prosecutor General's Office so that some kind of search could begin. This is a nightmare! Whether they'll call or not—I don't know. And the number the Ukrainians called from was the phone number of one of the soldiers who died along with my son. I think his parents still don't even know that their son was killed.
Davlet Sarsangaleev I submitted a DNA sample to the Orenburg military registration and enlistment office and mailed it to the Rostov military morgue, where the head of the medical company promised over the phone that he would accept it and track the envelope. The DNA matching process itself would take two to three weeks.
"Maybe he was brought in among the bodies sometime ago? Nobody knows anything. Although, when we go there, I was there myself, they take our DNA. Can't they check? His DNA is in his personal file. What are they checking there then, why are they taking this DNA, I don't understand at all," the Orenburg resident says. "At the military registration and enlistment office, they give you an envelope with a cotton ball in it, you swipe it in your mouth, put it in the envelope, seal it, and sign your name. Then someone comes running, collects these envelopes, and takes them away."
Davlet himself returned from the war in April, where he had volunteered for six months, but returned early due to a leg injury for which compensation was not provided. The contract soldier was told that his leg had hurt before, so he was not entitled to any compensation—it was not a wound.
"Davlet, since your son hasn't been declared dead yet, is the family receiving any financial compensation? Contract soldiers get good pay…"
— Yes, contract soldiers don’t get a good salary, his salary is 27 thousand and his combat salary is 100 thousand, and that’s it.
— Is this the money they pay?
"My son's wife was receiving his salary, but then I kicked up a fuss when I got back. Six people were killed in January, and their wives were still receiving their salaries. There was a big fuss when they brought one kid to the neighboring village, otherwise no one would have known. He's getting his salary, so he's alive and well. You call the Ministry of Defense, and they tell you he's not on the list of killed or missing. That's why I raised hell at the military unit. How can you give out such information? You don't even know you haven't had any soldiers in your unit since February. Well, they say, 'That's how they send it to us,' we'll look into it. I ask them, 'What are these salaries for the dead? What's going on?'
— Was your son a military man?
— No. When this SVO thing started, he went to the military registration and enlistment office, from there he was sent to Matrosskaya 4 here in Orenburg, where he signed a contract. He was sent to his base in Yekaterinburg and assigned to the 228th Regiment. He was a simple civilian. He'd served in the army before that, that's all.
In Orenburg, a missing person Baurazhan Sarsangaleeva He left behind an eight-year-old daughter and a two-year-old son. His wife also gets the same answer everywhere: "Not on the list," the father says.
"When I got back, I told my daughter-in-law I'd look for him myself. Some hidden numbers from the DPR are calling and saying your son's things have been brought to the DPR. I just don't understand where—they gave them to the military, the police, the hospital. I ask them, 'Why do I need the things? Where is the boy?' They say, 'We don't know.' I still don't understand anything. If he were in the Luhansk region, what does the DPR have to do with it?"
— Can bodies remain lying on the battlefield?
"I can't speak for that. I haven't personally seen it. How can I say such things? That never happened in our unit. Usually, even if someone was wounded, they always tried to take them away and provide assistance. I can't speak for the others." That's what we see on TV.
— How long does it usually take to find a relative who went missing in the war?
"Judging by social media, it's been a long time. Weeks and months go by, a long time. It's war, after all; you advance and retreat, and during those times it's important to preserve those who are alive, because those guys can't do anything anymore."
— Are you ready to go to war again?
"Of course I'm ready. Why not? I have three sons, and all three are fighting in the Northeastern Military District. We, as they say, are fighting for our homeland." We were born where we fight, we don’t need anything else.
Morgue Office
In groups where relatives post photos of missing persons, they often write about the Telegram channel Medical social, where they help find information about whether a combat participant has died. It's called the "Rostov group."
The chat, which has over 6 subscribers, posts photos of found mobilized soldiers, Wagnerites, Redutovites, and volunteers. They often post a questionnaire to be filled out if seeking assistance in a search, along with photos of tattoos, pectoral crosses, watches, necklaces, dog tags, photos from the chest pockets of the dead, and personal belongings found on the body in the morgue. Recently, composite sketches of the dead were published, and identification efforts have already begun.
The chat has been active since March 24 of this year, it is run by several people, and one is in charge of searching for missing persons - Artur AvanesyanA 31-year-old Muscovite originally from Nagorno-Karabakh, he also works on humanitarian aid at the medical and social rehabilitation foundation "Center for Assistance to Victims of Social Problems, Terrorism, and Military Conflicts." The foundation supported doctors and maternity hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic. After the war in Ukraine began, they switched to humanitarian aid in the war zone. While searching for missing persons, Artur Avanesyan considers "SVO" to be absolutely justified.
According to him, in late winter and early spring, while searching for a missing friend, he took DNA samples from relatives to the Rostov morgue, where he met the head physician of military unit 522, the Center for Reception, Processing, and Dispatch of the Dead.
"I asked how I could help. He asked what he could do. I said, 'You have guys, we have people, their relatives.' He looked at me like I was sick. And he said, 'Are you going to do this? Why not?' I returned to Moscow, asked my superiors, and got the go-ahead. They said, 'You can do it, so go ahead.' So I started," he says. Artur Avanesyan.
The Medicosocial.RF database currently contains over 2 names of people being sought by wives, daughters, mothers, sisters, fathers, and friends. Over the past two and a half months, 176 people have been found, 23 of whom are still alive.
"Most of the living are Wagner, five are from the Ministry of Defense. Among the dead, 44 are Wagner, four are from Redut, and the rest, more than a hundred, are from the Ministry of Defense. As of today (June 7), we have found about 180 missing persons," the chat's creator details.
The search is underway at morgues in Donetsk, Luhansk, and Gorlovka, and in Rostov-on-Don, at the morgue or military unit 522 of the Center for the Reception, Processing, and Dispatch of the Dead, which Russians remember from the Chechen wars—where the bodies of the dead were stored in refrigerators.
Arthur processes all completed forms from relatives himself, fearing a personal data leak. He sends them to the morgues, where relatives receive information about whether a body exists. If necessary, at the request of the military morgue, the relative undergoes a DNA test at the local military registration and enlistment office and sends it to the morgue, where the examination takes place within two to three weeks and a match is issued.
- So, you are the office at the morgue?
"Yes, that's right, we're the morgue's office! We work completely unpaid; no one takes a salary," he says. "For example, with the Wagner group, we have one-way communication: we send them questionnaires, and the database currently contains 111 members of the Wagner PMC. From there, they work with the families themselves. They send information every day, and when someone is identified from the list, we remove them from it. We're the only group that actually conducts searches." In Russia, we are the only ones with morgues.
— What is important besides DNA analysis when identifying a body?
For example, when someone is admitted to the hospital with a concussion and no documents, their fingerprints are taken first. Since a large number of these are organs, they're stored in databases. They can also take DNA, which is what's done in most cases. That's why Rostov wants to create a central DNA database of those going to the SVO zone. This is to find the relatives of the deceased as quickly as possible. So that the soldier isn't listed as missing. If fingerprints aren't found, they look in the DNA database. If there's a 99%, 999% match, that's what they find. It's the same with morgues. When a person is admitted to a morgue, whether in Luhansk, Horlivka, Donetsk, or Rostov, they first try to identify them by tattoos. That's why I ask for photos of tattoos, because a tattoo is the same design and can be drawn differently by two people. Clear photos of tattoos are needed because that's the first and most important way to identify the deceased. There was a situation where his cousin recognized him from his tattoo after half an hour, and then an hour and a half later his wife called.
— Contract soldiers say that they take DNA samples from everyone at the military registration and enlistment office?
"As far as I know, they don't currently take DNA from everyone when they leave. They want to make it a legislative requirement, but I think that will take another six months. We're speeding things up, trying to rush everyone to the military registration and enlistment offices, but not all are welcoming. It's a huge amount of work, and it costs every military registration and enlistment office a pretty penny. If everyone were to go en masse and send them to Rostov—currently, DNA testing in Rostov takes at least two to three weeks, with a waiting list of up to three months. At the morgue, there are essentially two queues—that's how I understand it: a soldier dies in the morgue, they swab his fingers, take his DNA, and send it to the labs. Those who died on the battlefield are prioritized; they're in the first place, and the second place is for relatives with their DNA."
When a person comes to the military registration and enlistment office and has their DNA taken, it's sent to Rostov at 10 Dachnaya Street, either through the morgue to a lab or directly to a lab, and this DNA is entered into a database. That's why we need a central DNA bank of all military personnel in the SVO, where matches can be found.
So, perhaps it makes sense for those whose relatives were mobilized, for example, to come to the military registration and enlistment office in advance, but for some reason the conscripted person himself was not tested upon dispatch?
"No one will agree in advance why they can't systematize it because they lack the manpower and time. Resources are limited everywhere. There's a limit to what DNA testing can do, which is why there's a waiting list. They can't do, say, 300 DNA tests daily, and if everyone rushed to the military registration and enlistment offices, there would be a waiting list for ten years. When a request comes to the military registration and enlistment office from Rostov, that's when they take it."
— Besides the morgues, is there a chance that the missing person is in captivity or that his body is simply rotting on the battlefield?
"Whoever is being held captive, at least from the Ministry of Defense, will only be told by the Ministry of Defense, no one else. An exchange is underway between the parties to the conflict. Could the bodies of the dead be left on the battlefield? There are many such guys. The enemy often doesn't allow the bodies to be retrieved. That's why..." There is an order from the Ministry of Defense that the dead will be collected only after the territory has been liberated, and this is correct.
— What's the most effective way for those searching for missing persons—writing to you in the chat or going the bureaucratic route—through the Ministry of Defense, military units, and military registration and enlistment offices?
"That's not for me to decide, but for the families themselves. Ask the group members yourselves what's faster? We've had calls from military recruitment offices, and today the head of the Barabinsk district called from the Novosibirsk region, as well as aides to the head of the LPR... We have a record for the fastest identification in the group in one hour. Today, my wife found someone using a composite sketch."
"The Ministry of Defense was not prepared for such a war and such losses."
In public groups, you can find mentions of the name of the head of the working office of the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation Vladimir Lozbinev, which provides assistance in the search for missing persons.
"We only write petitions to the Russian Ministry of Defense to find the serviceman; only the Russian Ministry of Defense is involved in prisoner searches and exchanges," he says, emphasizing that few such petitions have been submitted.
Why so few?
"People generally don't know what to do and appeal to every possible authority, including the prosecutor's office, military units, and so on. What's needed is a simple application to the Russian Minister of Defense, clearly stating who to find and who is writing it, and enclosing copies of documents, such as a passport or any other remaining document."
Do relatives themselves send these notices to the Ministry of Defense, addressed to Shoigu? Am I correct? And who in Russia is responsible for disseminating such information? Who's supposed to provide Russians with the search algorithm? The Ministry of Defense? The military registration and enlistment offices? Perhaps someone should issue memos?
— Only the Ministry of Defense deals with this, all applications must be written in the name of Shoigu S.K.. and send it to the Ministry of Defense. If you need to make a quick request, you can do so through me here on Telegram or by email, but that takes longer. This is our job, so feel free to provide my channel for communication.
Recently the State Duma simplified the procedure recognition of a soldier as missing in action. Director of the human rights group "Citizen. Army. Law" Sergey Krivenko The reduction in the period for recognizing a person as missing in action in war to six months is linked to the fact that relatives will be able to process the payments they are entitled to from the state more quickly.
"Six months is enough time for information to surface that he's in captivity. And if there's no such information, then he's dead," says Krivenko.
If military registration and enlistment offices take DNA samples from everyone heading to the front, then why can't they find relatives who search on social media, even when there are bodies in morgues?
"There's no unified database, so finding relatives is always a piecemeal effort. Apparently, this is the families of missing persons reacting to the Russian Ministry of Defense's failure to locate and inform their families."
Why, after starting the war, didn't the Ministry of Defense prepare the conditions for searching for missing people, for example, DNA databases?
— The Ministry of Defense was not prepared for such a war and such losses.
It was the same in Chechnya
What's the correct procedure for relatives to follow when searching for someone missing in action during the war? While they're "waiting" for a response, what should they do? Where should they report, where should they go?
"It is necessary to obtain official confirmation from the relevant agency (the Ministry of Defense, the Russian National Guard, or the military unit commander) that the serviceman is missing or listed as missing (i.e., his whereabouts are unknown)," says the Chairman of the Board of the International Charitable Organization "Mother's Right" Foundation. Veronika Marchenko— Accordingly, one can write an application (to the department, military unit) to include him in such a list. Until the moment of recognition by the courts If a person is missing or deceased, their family members have the right to receive their salary, which is paid by the command. Therefore, after receiving official confirmation, you must submit a written request to the military unit commander for payment of salary from the date of disappearance, attaching a bank statement indicating the account where the money should be transferred. It is important to note that this salary is transferred: children, spouse and only in their absence - to parents (in equal shares).
How does the search for missing persons differ today from the Chechen wars? Has the search mechanism become more effective?
Just as in Chechnya, the search for missing persons is being facilitated by the unification and exchange of information among ordinary citizens. This is currently happening on various social media platforms, through the creation of dedicated groups. Often, this information exchange allows relatives to learn the fate of their loved ones. Some relatives also visit morgues located in Donetsk, Lugansk, and Rostov-on-Don, where the bodies of civilians evacuated from the war zone are delivered. There, they review photo archives. This method also allows relatives to independently locate their loved ones. It's important to understand that even after the military operation ends, there will be many situations where relatives will have no information about the fate of their loved one, as the body could be completely destroyed during the fighting or subsequently due to external factors.
— The reduction in the period for recognizing a missing person as dead after six months this spring—what does this mean for their families?
— After the start of the Second World War, the issue of changing the procedure for recognizing persons as missing and deceased arose. A person could only be declared missing by the court after one year had passed since the last information about their whereabouts had been received, and declared deceased only after two years had passed since the end of military operations. These circumstances significantly worsened the social security of the relatives of servicemen who went missing during military operations in the Second World War. Therefore, amendments were made to the legislation (Federal Law of April 14, 2023, No. 120 "On Amendments to Federal Law of November 30, 1994, No. 52 "On the Implementation of Part 1 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation," which entered into force on May 15, 2023).
Irina Krasnova
