As of August 2026
When we talk about Ukrainians in Russian captivity, it is important not to reduce everything to a single figure. There are prisoners of war, there are civilians whom Russia is unlawfully detaining, and there are people who are missing. Some of those who are missing may be in captivity, but the state does not yet have enough information to confirm this.
According to the latest publicly available estimates by the Ukrainian authorities, around 7,000 Ukrainian servicemen remain in Russian captivity. As for civilians, the UN estimates that more than 16,000 Ukrainians have been unlawfully deprived of their liberty by Russia.
These are different categories. And behind every one of these figures there is a person and a family waiting for them.
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Russia has turned the unlawful detention and torture of Ukrainians into one of the tools of its occupation policy. The National Police of Ukraine has identified 159 places of detention in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine and in Russia. Thousands of civilians and military personnel have passed through this system, and some of them remain in captivity to this day. This was stated by Maksym Tsutskiridze, Acting Head of the National Police of Ukraine.
The places of detention identified by the police include basements, torture chambers, filtration camps, pre-trial detention centres and penal colonies. Investigators are not limiting their work to documenting individual cases of violence. They are also attempting to reconstruct each person's entire trajectory — from the moment of capture to the place where they were held before their release or exchange.
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Ukraine has called on the international community not to stop efforts to establish justice regarding the mass killing of Ukrainian prisoners of war in occupied Olenivka. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs appealed to the International Criminal Court, other international judicial institutions, and national law enforcement authorities, urging them to continue investigations and bring to justice all those involved in the crime — both direct perpetrators and those who gave the orders.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasizes that the Ukrainian defenders who, after leaving the territory of the Azovstal plant, found themselves in Russian captivity, were under the protection of international humanitarian law. According to the Geneva Conventions, the state holding prisoners of war bears full responsibility for their lives, health, and safety. Therefore, according to Ukraine’s position, the mass death of prisoners in Olenivka is not merely a tragedy, but a serious war crime and a grave violation of international law.
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Russian troops executed a Ukrainian prisoner of war in the Donetsk region. Ukrainian law enforcement authorities have launched a pre-trial investigation into this war crime. The incident constitutes a grave violation of international humanitarian law, which prohibits the killing of persons in captivity.
According to the Office of the Prosecutor General, the Donetsk Regional Prosecutor's Office has initiated a pre-trial investigation into the commission of a war crime resulting in the death of a person (Part 2, Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
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The Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don has sentenced six Ukrainian prisoners of war to lengthy prison terms ranging from 12 to 19 years in a maximum-security penal colony. The individuals concerned are Tymofii Vashchenko, Andrii Zhyzhoma, Denys Shelomiienko, Serhii Medvediev, Volodymyr Shulipa, and Artem Stanishevskyi. According to Russian media reports, the sentences were handed down in April, although information about them has only now become public.
The Russian side claims that the Ukrainian servicemen had allegedly participated in the activities of organizations designated as "terrorist" in the Russian Federation. In particular, service in the Azov Brigade or the Aidar unit served as the basis for charges of "terrorist activity," "participation in a terrorist community," and "undergoing training for the purpose of carrying out terrorist activities."
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The latest prisoner exchange between Ukraine and the Russian Federation, which resulted in the return of 185 service members and one civilian, has once again drawn attention to the scale of the problem of unlawful detention of Ukrainian citizens in Russia and in territories occupied by it. Despite regular exchanges, thousands of people remain in captivity, while international organizations and human rights advocates increasingly describe Russia’s violations of international humanitarian law as systematic.
According to data released by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, approximately 7,000 Ukrainian service members are currently being held in Russian captivity. The number of unlawfully detained civilians is estimated at between 10,000 and 20,000 people. Since the beginning of the full-scale war, Ukraine has succeeded in bringing home more than 9,000 of its citizens, most of them military personnel.
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Russia continues to blatantly violate international humanitarian law by systematically concealing the true condition of Ukrainian prisoners of war. According to an independent OSCE expert mission recently presented in Vienna, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) does not have full access to places where Ukrainians are held, whether in Russian prisons or in temporarily occupied territories.
Members of the mission report that Russian authorities only allow visits to prisoners who are in satisfactory condition. The sick, wounded, or those who have been tortured are deliberately hidden from international observers. Professor Hervé Ascensio noted that all ICRC visits are strictly controlled by Russia, even though under the Geneva Conventions, the Red Cross has the right to free and independent access to all prisoners.
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General statistics and analysis of the current situation
The aggression of the Russian Federation, which began back in 2014 with the annexation of Crimea and military operations in the east of Ukraine, and turned into a full-scale war in February 2022, led to the fact that during this time a significant number of Ukrainian military personnel and civilians ended up in Russian captivity.
Since fighting in eastern Ukraine in 2014, especially in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, dozens of Ukrainian soldiers have been captured by Russian-backed separatists. According to reports by human rights organizations, from 2014 to 2021, more than 1,500 military personnel and civilians were abducted and captured. Following Russia's annexation of Crimea, Ukrainian military personnel who remained on the peninsula became the target of arrests and illegal detention. According to human rights activists, about 10% of Ukrainian soldiers who served in Crimea were detained by Russian troops and captured.
According to the data of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), as of the beginning of August 2024, about 20,000 Ukrainian servicemen and civilians are in Russian captivity. These data indicate systemic violations of human rights that require an urgent international response.
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The escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in October 2023 became one of the most destructive events in the region in recent decades. Large-scale attacks by both sides led to significant civilian casualties and violations of the rights of prisoners of war. Both Palestinian and Israeli civilians became victims of violence and gross human rights violations. The summary data examines the key aspects of the conflict, including hostage-taking, humanitarian crises, and human rights violations with corresponding statistics.
During the terrorist attacks of October 7, 2023, which occurred amid a brutal assault by Hamas terrorists on Israel, the death toll was 1,139: 695 Israeli civilians (including 38 children), 71 foreign citizens, and 373 security personnel. These figures were published in December 2023 using social security data. Another 251 people were taken hostage during the initial attack on Israel in the Gaza Strip. Another 479 Palestinians, including 116 children, and 9 Israelis were killed in the occupied West Bank (including East Jerusalem). Additionally, five people are considered missing, including four Israelis.