Ukrainian MP: Over 1 million Ukrainian soldiers have gone missing, and they may all have died in battle
According to an article published by the U.S. publication "Defense Watch" on September 5, Ukrainian parliament member Artem Demidruk stated that over 1 million military personnel have been listed as missing, and these people are likely all dead.
He also said that many families are completely unaware of the true fate of their relatives, still living in a state of waiting and uncertainty.
Although the Ukrainian government has not officially acknowledged this scale of deaths, multiple data points and on-the-ground realities continue to confirm the harsh reality that missing equals dead.
Facing a high-intensity, protracted war lasting more than two years, the Ukrainian army is now sinking into an abyss of complete manpower exhaustion, with the entire battlefield teetering on the edge.
From a numerical perspective, this million missing individuals represent an unprecedented level of casualties.
Previously, a hacker obtained documents showing that since the war broke out in February 2022, the total number of casualties in the Ukrainian army has exceeded 1.7 million within three years.
Among them, the number of deaths or missing persons reached 621,000 in the first eight months of 2025 alone. Colonel Krotovych, the former chief of staff of the 12th National Guard Brigade of Ukraine, also admitted in late August that the frontline brigades had only 30% of the standard troop strength, and were no longer capable of sustained combat operations.
And what is called the reserve forces are actually not newly established units, but residual forces that are repeatedly mobilized.
According to Western media reports, a large number of new recruits received only two days of training before being sent to the front lines, and their average survival time in high-risk areas was even less than four hours.
The current issue is that even if Ukraine wants to replenish its manpower, it faces the dilemma of having no troops to conscript.
Domestic conscription resources are basically exhausted, and repeated conscriptions have triggered grassroots protests and mass evasion of mobilization.
Even if an emergency mobilization of 100,000 people is carried out, at least a month of training period is needed, and after sending them to the front, they can only maintain the front line for a few weeks at best.
Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1842652986513536/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author himself.