How to find a prisoner of war or a missing person

Updated July 30, 2026

If a person has stopped getting in touch, the first thing you need is to know whether they are alive, in captivity or dead. Below is how that works with me: where to write, what to send and what to expect. Who I am and why I do this is set out separately, with dates and links you can check.

Where to write

Write on WhatsApp or Telegram — the buttons are at the bottom of the page. Both reach me and there is no difference between them: choose whichever you use.

I read everything and reply myself, usually within a day. No assistants, no auto-reply.

What to send in the first message

Five things. The more of them you have, the faster the answer will be.

• full name;
• year of birth;
• military unit or formation;
• where and when there was last contact;
• a photograph.

If some of it is missing, write anyway. It is possible to work with less, it just takes longer.

What happens next

I do not look for the person myself: I have neither access to the databases nor the authority. I pass the request on to those who do: if a russian soldier is being sought — to “I Want to Find”; if a Ukrainian defender — to the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War and to “Search for Your Own”. They are the ones who answer, and I make sure the request does not get lost on the way.

I pass on only what you wrote, and only because that is what the request is for. Nothing beyond that goes anywhere.

I do not name timelines. They do not depend on me, and promising someone else’s deadlines means lying to a person who is having a hard enough time already.

There is a separate explanation of how an exchange itself works and of who decides who ends up in one. Neither I nor any other volunteer takes part in that decision.

What to expect after that

The first answer comes the same day — even when there is nothing to say on the substance yet: I write that the request has arrived and where it has gone. If there is no answer within a day, the message did not reach me; write a second time.

After that the waiting begins, and it can be long. The most common reason is neither bureaucracy nor a lost application: the person is simply not in the lists that anyone has access to. They have not been confirmed as a prisoner, have not been identified, are not listed anywhere. Until new data appears, the status will not change for anyone who is looking for them — and no connections speed that up.

Silence on my side means exactly one thing: there is no news. If something appears, I will write myself; you do not need to remind me. Writing again makes sense when something new has appeared on your side: a date, a place, a call sign, a unit number, a photograph, a witness who saw them. That is the only thing that actually moves a search.

I will write in any outcome, including the one nobody wants: found alive, death confirmed, or still no data. I never close a request — it has no expiry date, and a year later it is as open as it was on the first day.

What not to do

Do not pay. Not me — I take no money — and not anyone else: not for a search, not for a place on an exchange list, not for “speeding things up”. And not the person who promises “their own man on the commission” either. Only fraudsters sell this, because there is nothing here to sell: nobody forms the exchange queue for money.

And do not send your details out in all directions. A whole industry of “searchers” has grown up around other people’s grief, and every new copy of a form is one more person who knows who you are looking for and how to find you. The official route, “I Want to Find” and me — that is enough.

And do not post photographs and details of the person in open “looking for my relative” groups. It is not only the people you are addressing who read them: the russian side sees the same posts. The fewer strangers who know exactly who you are looking for, the safer it is for them.

And do not wait in silence. Writing to me does not replace an official statement: the state keeps the records, and until a person is declared in them, nobody is looking for them except you. Where to file it is below, along with the phone numbers and the online account.

What you can do yourself, right now

What comes next depends on who you are looking for — the routes are different and they do not overlap.

If you are looking for a Ukrainian defender, that is the Coordination Headquarters: it keeps the records and runs the search for our own. Register an account at cabinet.koordshtab.gov.ua and enter everything you know about the person. After registration the information starts being processed, and they will contact you if further questions come up.

The advice line is 0 800 300 529, free from within Ukraine, on weekdays from 10 to 16. In the menu: 1 for a consultation, 2 to book an in-person appointment, 3 for psychological help, which works until 20:00. From abroad — +38 044 390 43 90.

If you are looking for a russian soldier, the state project “I Want to Find” is the one that works for you — it is what gives answers about russian soldiers. You do not need to approach the Coordination Headquarters: it deals with Ukrainian defenders.

You can also write to me directly: I pass such requests to “I Want to Find” and help that project work — a lot of russians write to me, and that has long stopped being an occasional thing.

What I cannot do

I do not affect the exchange queue and cannot make it move faster. I promise nothing about timing. I do not take on a search for money — this work is always free.

State projects

Alongside this, the state projects of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War are at work: “I Want to Live”, through which russian soldiers surrender voluntarily, and “I Want to Find”, which answers the families of russian soldiers: alive, held prisoner or dead. I have worked with both since the beginning of 2023.

I take no money for this

Not for a search, not for a place on an exchange list, not for speeding things up — never and in no form. If somebody asks you for money in my name, that is a fraudster. More on this in the “Terms of Use”. Check who you are corresponding with: all of my real addresses are gathered on one page.