JOHN MARONE IN KYIV: Families of disappeared Ukrainian servicemen, believed killed in action but never recovered, want answers

06:56, Wed, May 6, 2026 Updated: 06:56, Wed, May 6, 2026

John Marone

John Marone is our man in Kyiv (Image: Express)

Ukrainians are long used to seeing their soldiers returned dead, wounded or in prisoner exchanges – but when around 250 go missing over the course of a couple of weeks, and on Russian territory, relatives begin asking questions. "They sent them in three or four at a time, and almost none came back," said 47-year-old Oksana, from a village in the western Ukrainian region of Ivano-Frankivsk, whose husband is among them.

According to her, the hapless Ukrainian servicemen never stood much of a chance: "The Russians were waiting for them with glide bombs, rockets and drones. They threw everything they had at them." And she is not alone. On a sunny Saturday morning last month, scores of Ukrainian wives, mothers, sisters and daughters of the soldiers who went missing during Ukraine's Spring 2025 Belgorod offensive gathered in the centre of Kyiv to bring attention to their cause.

They call themselves The Union of Families of Demydivka, in reference to the village in the Russian border region of Belgorod around which most of the fighting took place. After meeting and organising on social media, the group of 200 mostly women began coming to Kyiv to demand answers from army commanders. "The official response has been two killed, the rest missing in action," she said.

But surviving soldiers from the campaign whom the group has been able to contact paint a more vivid picture. Oksana said: "The few that did return spoke of a nightmare. They said it was total chaos. Men losing contact with their comrades and wandering right into the hands of the enemy."

One woman among the demonstrators said she'd heard the Russians had killed all the missing soldiers and burned their bodies. "They said they had seen large fires in the area shortly after the fighting and had been told by fleeing locals that someone was burning bodies."

And according to Oksana, the chaos was due to bad planning combined with a chronic shortage of troops. Her husband Volodya, whom she described as "a real family man", had immediately signed up to fight when war broke out in February 2022, but at 44 years of age, had been assigned to guarding aircraft for most of the war.

Then, at the end of 2024, his and other air force units with no front-line combat experience were dissolved and subsumed into the 225th Separate Assault Regiment to serve in infantry companies. "He was sent to Sumy Region on March 16, into Russia on the 18 and was killed on the 20," she said, adding, "He had only been given two weeks training and hardly knew anyone in his unit."

The army informed her in a telephone call on March 28 that her husband was missing in action. Oksana and her two adult daughter immediately took action themselves.

"The same day, my daughters and I went to the police station to give DNA samples to help identify him should he be returned," she said.

Then she began searching various sites and social media channels in hope of filling in the picture of her husband's disappearance. It was during this time that she met the relatives of other soldiers who went missing near Demydivka. She said: "We supported each other, exchanged information and documents."

She has also, she said, received plenty of support from Volodya's "Brothers in arms, who regularly drop by to offer assistance, share stories of their service together."

But mostly, she spends her time waiting, for news of the next prisoner exchange, for closure, for the truth. "We were happily married for 26 years. He was my world. Now I just want to know if he is alive - and if not to give him a proper burial. To obtain some peace," she said.

But not peace at any cost. "I want to see an end to this war, but through total victory – so that he and others did not give their lives in vain," she added.