The CIS Afghan war veterans committee said 272 servicemen of the former Soviet army are still listed as missing during the Afghan war.

“Since the setting up of the committee in 1993, we have found 22 men and helped them return to the Motherland. At present, 272 people are on the list of the missing,” deputy committee chairman Pytor Kerzhimakin said at a news conference on the occasion of the return to Russia of former prisoner-of-war Yuri Stepanov.

Stepanov said he had been captured in Salanga during a fight in 1987 by the unit led by field commander Sufi Puyand.

“After the withdrawal of the Soviet troops from Afghanistan, I had to stay as a prisoner-of-war in a group of mujaheddins for ten years,” he added.

When asked by reporters if he would return to Afghanistan, Yuri said: “I’ve come to Russia with my wife and a five-year-old son. Hopefully, for good.”

“At present, contacts have been established with seven former Soviet servicemen living in Afghanistan; efforts are underway toward returning them,” journalist Yevgeny Kirichenko said.

He took part in a search mission which returned from Afghanistan on Tuesday. The locations of 17 places of burial of Soviet servicemen have been found. The remains of six soldiers have been exhumed and brought to the Motherland, Kirichenko said.

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