"I might as well tell myself he was killed": These Ukrainian women wait in vain for news of their missing loved ones

"Kitten, I love you, I have to go." This terse message is the last sign of life received a year and a half ago by Oleksandra from her husband, Oleksandr, a soldier in the Ukrainian army sent to the front to fight against the Russian invasion, which began more than three years ago .

Like Oleksandr, 50,000 soldiers have disappeared, and their families do not know their fate: dead, prisoners, wounded or even deserters.

"I was given contradictory versions, first that he was killed by a grenade, that he returned to Ukraine, then I was told that he stepped on a mine and finally that he was bombarded by artillery," Oleksandra told BFMTV.

Despite numerous reminders to the military authorities, the latter has not managed to obtain more details.

"We make a lot of requests, we send letters, but the answer is always the same: 'wait, wait.' I don't understand why they don't tell us where he is, they might as well tell me directly that he was killed," she adds.

In kyiv, hundreds of women are protesting and demanding answers from local authorities. "Bring back our husbands alive, bring back our husbands alive!" they chant.

"I want an answer from the state, I want them to help us find our heroes, our husbands, our fathers," one of them tells us. And a second adds: "I don't expect anything more from them. They are sitting in their offices, warming their asses, and don't want to do anything anymore. Shame on them, shame on them."

Faced with the state's impotence, many families turn to the Red Cross, which has access to lists of dead soldiers and prisoners. Again, calls often go unanswered. "Unfortunately, I have nothing new, but no matter what, we keep looking," Yulia, an employee of the International Committee of the Red Cross, tells one family.

"Most of them will probably never get the answer they want to hear, for others it could take years," said Pat Griffiths, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross.

According to Volodymyr Zelensky in mid-February, 46,000 soldiers have fallen in combat since the start of the Russian invasion. A figure that could double if it were to include the 50,000 missing.