Ukraine launches site to help Russians find killed or captured soldiers
Ukrainian soldiers after a fight with a Russian raiding party in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev on the morning of February 26, 2022. AFP - SERGEI SUPINSKY
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
To counter Russian propaganda, which disseminates very little information to its citizens about the military offensive taking place in Ukraine, the Ukrainian authorities have launched a site listing Russian soldiers presumed killed or captured in their country to help the Russians to identify their soldiers.
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Baptized "200rf.com", in reference to the code used for soldiers killed in action, the site includes photos of passports or military documents belonging to Russian soldiers presumed killed since the invasion.
Videos of allegedly captured Russian soldiers are also shown.
“
I know that many Russians are worried about how and where their children, their sons, their husbands are and what is happening to them
”, explains in a video on the site Viktor Androussiv, adviser to the Ukrainian Minister of the Interior.
The opaque Russian balance sheet
Accused since the start of the crisis with
Ukraine
in 2014 of covering up its military losses, Russia has blocked access to the site on its territory.
"
The site is blocked in the Russian Federation based on the decision of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation
," the website read on Monday.
“
There is a dedicated site, and a hotline, in Ukraine where they can call and inquire about the situation of Russian soldiers.
Because I believe it is deeply unfair that the parents of 4,300 killed Russian soldiers have no idea what happened to their sons, and are unable to bury them with dignity
,” Sergiy Kyslystya, the Ukrainian ambassador to the UN, at the microphone of our correspondent,
Carrie Nooten
.
Since the start of the military offensive on Thursday in Ukraine,
Russia has only recognized "
losses
" without quantifying them.
The leader of the Russian republic of Dagestan in the Caucasus, Sergei Melikov, was the first official on Sunday to acknowledge the death of a Russian soldier in Ukraine.
He posted a message on his official Instagram page, paying tribute to an officer he said was killed during the "
special defense operation in Donbass
", Eastern Ukraine.
► To read also: Follow the situation in Ukraine live
(and with agencies)
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Ukraine
Russia
Vladimir Poutine
Volodymyr Zelensky
Defense