The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) announced today that it is trying to “shed light on the fate of 23,000 people who disappeared” during the Russia-Ukraine war.

“The Office of the Central Investigation Service (ACR) of the ICRC for the international armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine opened in March 2022” is dedicated to the investigation of missing persons of both sides in this conflict, “who were captured, killed or separated from their own people” after fighting, the ICRC said in a statement.

“Having no news of a relative is a real torture, a constant agony. This tragic reality is faced by thousands of families. They have the right to know what happened to their relatives and, when possible, to exchange news with them,” underlined Dusan Vujasanin, Head of the ACR Office.

“Over the past two years, the ICRC has received more than 115,000 investigative requests from Ukrainian and Russian families, by phone, through its online platforms, by mail or during face-to-face meetings,” it said. 31 January 2024, the ICRC, with the assistance of several national Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies — in Ukraine, Russia and elsewhere — helped 8,000 families obtain information on the fate or whereabouts of their relatives.” according to the announcement.

The announcement includes testimonies from families who finally received news from their relatives.

“I am so happy to learn that my son is alive. I didn’t hear from him for about two months. I was like dead during this period,” one mother told the ICRC.

The ACR Office “has enabled thousands of people to reconnect with a relative they had lost track of or to obtain information about what happened to them,” Vujasanin added.

“But so many others are still waiting and in uncertainty,” he stressed.

The ACR Office on the Russia-Ukraine conflict is the ICRC’s first to be established specifically for an international conflict in 30 years. This mission is the most important since World War II.

As provided for in the Geneva Treaties, the two countries have each established a National Intelligence Bureau (BNR) tasked with collecting, collating and disseminating information on protected persons (such as prisoners of war and prisoners) in the hands of them, the ICRC explained.

Acting as a neutral mediator between Russia and Ukraine, the ACR Office collects, compiles and records this information, then passes it on to the camp concerned, the ICRC added.

Parties to an international conflict are obliged “to treat persons under their control with humanity and to ensure that the dead receive decent care,” the ICRC emphasized.