Rally in support of missing and captured soldiers held in Kyiv – video
Several hundred people have gathered on Kyiv's Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) to draw attention to missing and captured Ukrainian soldiers.
Source: Ukrainian public broadcaster hromadske
Details: Hromadske noted that relatives and friends of the missing soldiers came to the rally. Their number exceeded the square's capacity, so some participants stood on the opposite side of the street.
The participants demanded that the authorities pay attention to and be transparent about the circumstances of the disappearance of their relatives, as well as provide information about their fate.
Viktoriia, the daughter of a missing soldier, said that "the purpose of this peaceful rally is not to allow people to forget about their relatives who have disappeared or are in captivity. Such events make it possible to raise awareness of the problem."
У Києві родичі полонених і зниклих безвісти військовослужбовців вийшли на акцію
Відео: Ірина Сітнікова/hromadske pic.twitter.com/bTUZjkM1B5— hromadske (@HromadskeUA) October 16, 2024Advertisement:
She said that 25 soldiers from the 1st Special Forces Brigade are missing, including her father, but the soldiers’ relatives have not received any information from the state about what happened to them.
Quote from Viktoriia: "They disappeared on 28 September and 1 October 2022. That is, every three days the guys went into battle and went missing. Unfortunately, we have no information to date."
«Зниклі безвісти не забуті», — скандують учасники акції на Майдані Незалежності pic.twitter.com/xRqhc1nyzY
— hromadske (@HromadskeUA) October 16, 2024
Details: Vitalii, the brother of another missing soldier, also spoke about the lack of communication with the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ command, which has not provided any information about the man, who went missing on 11 June 2024. Seven more soldiers from Mykolaiv have also gone missing from this unit.
Oleksandra, the wife of a missing soldier, told reporters that her husband had been at the training ground for only three days, and then he was sent to Krasnohorivka, where he disappeared on 29 June.
She stressed the incompetence of the investigation into the circumstances of the disappearance:
"The investigation report is ridiculous [...] It says that a fellow soldier saw him killed by a kamikaze drone. When they were evacuating the next day, for some reason they took my husband out of a trench and dragged him under a tree. Yet when they sent people in to start looking for the body, they couldn't find it."
Support UP or become our patron!
