Nearly 20% of Ukrainians have lost contact with their relatives due to the Russian invasion

Many Ukrainians have close relatives with whom they have lost contact as a result of the Russian invasion and do not know where they are. This is evidenced by the results of a survey conducted within the framework of the project of the Public Organization Center for Assistance to the Volunteer Movement Volunteer.Org: “Assessment of the damage caused by war crimes of the Russian Federation in Ukraine.”

“Almost 20% reported that they have among their close relatives those with whom they have lost contact and do not know where they are now. Russia or the occupied territories of the east or Crimea. 7% of respondents noted that personally or their close relatives were injured, maimed due to hostilities,” the results of the survey say.

Every tenth respondent indicated that his housing was either completely destroyed (2% of respondents) or damaged (8% of respondents). Another 5% said they did not know the state of their housing now. For 85% of respondents, the housing situation has not changed.

“About a third of those whose house is located in the de-occupied territory or the territory of hostilities noted that their housing was damaged. Also, one in five of those who still have housing in the zone of occupation do not know what condition it is in,” the survey adds.

It is also noted that 95% of those surveyed have not contacted law enforcement agencies in the past six months on issues related to the full-scale Russian invasion.

At the same time, special courts with the participation of national and foreign judges (63%) and international institutions (23%) are considered the most effective mechanism for bringing Russia to justice for war crimes.

“A third of the respondents are ready to personally participate in lawsuits in order to demand compensation for lost property / health in courts and international courts,” analysts point out.

According to Oleksandr Kopyl, co-founder of the consulting company K&K Group, head of the Nuremberg-2022 volunteer initiative, which has been collecting and cataloging the crimes of the Russian army against the Ukrainian population since the first day of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, more than three thousand facts have been published by the Nuremberg-2022 initiative alone. war crimes.

“In addition to informing the public, all the facts are sent for further work to the relevant law enforcement agencies of Ukraine, as well as to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague. We are sure that thanks to the cooperation of public initiatives and state authorities, war crimes will be investigated, and all war criminals will be fairly punished,” Kopyl noted.

The survey and the report were prepared within the framework of the project “Urgent EU support for civil society”, implemented by the Initiative Center for the Promotion of the Activity and Development of the Public Initiative “Unification” with the financial support of the European Union. Its content is the sole responsibility of the Public Organization “Volunteer.Org Volunteering Assistance Center” and does not necessarily reflect the position of the European Union. Expert support and advice during the study was provided by representatives of the Coalition “Ukraine. Five in the morning.”

The survey was conducted among the population of Ukraine aged 18 years and older in all regions, except for the temporarily occupied territories of Crimea and Donbass, as well as territories where at the time of the survey there was no Ukrainian mobile communication. The survey period is from 15 to 19 September 2022.

Results are weighted using up-to-date data from the State Statistics Service of Ukraine. The sample is representative in terms of age, gender, and type of settlement. Sample population: 2000 respondents. Survey method: CATI (Computer Assisted Telephone Interviews – telephone interviews using a computer). The error of the representativeness of the study with a confidence probability of 0.95: no more than 2.2%.
We remind you that in April a team of journalists and media workers put forward an initiative to create a project to search for missing people “Find your loved ones”.

We ask citizens whose relatives do not get in touch to send us all the information they have. We recommend using the following form:

1. Full name of the missing person;
2. Your contact details;
3. Photo of the missing person, description of special signs;
4. Approximate place of the last stay of the missing person.

This project is non-commercial, all your appeals will be edited and published free of charge in the media.
The project coordinator is Maksim Urakin, deputy head of the Interfax-Ukraine news agency and publisher of the Open4Business project.

Please send information about the missing to e-mail [email protected]