The Ukrainian government is demanding the return of every Ukrainian captured by Russia, a top military official said Saturday.
"If there is at least a small hope that this person is alive, we will demand from (Russia) that this person returns home. The work will not stop until we return everyone, the living and the dead," said Bohdan Okhrimenko, an official from the Coordination Headquarters on the Treatment of Prisoners of War.
Speaking at an event in Kyiv, Okhrimenko said some 2,230 Ukrainians have been brought home from Russian captivity since the beginning of its full-scale invasion.
Around 20% of those people had been reported missing, according to Okhrimenko. He said there had been "no confirmation, no evidence” that these people were in captivity, so they were designated missing until they were found.
Oleh Kotenko, the Ukrainian commissioner for missing persons, said Saturday:
In times of war, we have to do everything we can to make sure that families (of missing persons) know that the state cares about them."
The commissioner's office is tasked with searching for people, analyzing information and communicating with relatives of those who are missing, Kotenko said. The office includes a call center as well as several on-the-ground teams that are searching through recently liberated areas.