Kyiv has created an online chatbot service that will allow relatives of Russian servicemen missing in Ukraine to check whether they have been confirmed dead or captured, Kyiv authorities said on Wednesday.

Kyiv hopes the measure will put pressure on Moscow 22 months after the large-scale invasion of Ukraine, as more Russians at home seek answers about the fate of the missing soldiers, News.ro reports.

The chatbot service with the Russian name “I want to find” will work in the Telegram application, which is extremely popular in both Russia and Ukraine.

“Citizens of Russia can officially apply to this (project) to obtain objective information about their relatives, which is being hidden from them by the ruling regime in the Russian Federation,” said Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for Ukrainian military intelligence. , which is engaged in negotiations on the exchange of prisoners.

Throughout the war, Ukraine and Russia exchanged prisoners. The largest of these happened last week, when 230 Ukrainian prisoners – mostly military, as well as six civilians – were returned to Kyiv in exchange for 248 Russian soldiers.

The project will collect missing persons information from those using the chatbot and check it against Ukrainian databases of dead, captured or missing Russian servicemen.

One of the people who presented the project on Wednesday was Iryna Krina, who introduced herself as a Russian citizen and co-founder of a grassroots movement seeking to find and bring home Russian soldiers.

“If we get the right answer, for example, that your relative is in captivity in Ukraine, you can make an appointment for a consultation and we will arrange a video call to confirm (the person’s identity),” she said.

“This will allow the Russians to turn to their authorities and, based on this video call, demand that (the soldier) be included in the prisoner exchange,” Krina explained.

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