During the course of the war in eastern Ukraine, hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers have been either captured as POWs or gone missing during the fighting.

During the battle of Ilovaisk in August 2014, Ukrainian soldiers became encircled by Russian regular soldiers and separatist fighters. After intense negotiations the Ukrainians eventually managed to secure safe passage to leave the town. However, that never happened. As the Ukrainians fled the town in their vehicles they were ambushed and slaughtered. It's thought up to a thousand soldiers were killed and hundreds more were captured.

Many of these POWs were released over the course of the following week, however some were summarily executed and others still remain missing.