Paul Goble
Staunton, April 28 – The number of Russians asking the human rights ombudsman in Irkutsk for help in finding missing persons has doubled since 2022 and 70 percent of such applications are connected with the war, according to an investigation by Asya Gay, a journalist with the People of Baikal portal.
According to her figures, during the period since Putin’s expanded war in Ukraine began, 3966 Irkutsk military personnel have disappeared, 664 are known to be in prison, and 338 have unsuccessfully tried to get out of the army and whose locations are not known (baikal-stories.media/2026/04/28/pochti-chetyre-tysyachi-propavshih-bez-vesti/).
Svetlana Semyonova, the Irkutsk oblast, says that the number of missing cases involving military personnel that have reached her office has gone up 20 times and now forms 70 percent of the total in this category; and she adds that the share in neighboring Buryatia is even higher – 80 percent, an indication that the Irkutsk figures are not outliers.
In 2022, the Irkutsk ombudsman handled 193 cases involving missing soldiers and 2513 involving other causes; but in 2025, the relationship between these two categories had changed dramatically, with 3753 involving soldiers and onlly155 all other categories, Semyonov continues.
These numbers for a single federal subject are horrific given the number of relatives and friends involved; but it is important to remember, Gay says, that they understate the problem given that many people suffering such losses do not turn to the authorities for help because they do not think they will get any.
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