 Overall during World War II, the Romanian Army lost 475,070 people on the Eastern Front, of which 245,388 were killed in action, disappeared, or died in hospitals or non-battle circumstances, and 229,682 (according to Soviet archival documents) were taken prisoners of war by the Red Army.Of the latter, 187,367 were counted as Romanian POWs in NKVD camps (on April 22, 1956, 54,612 were counted as having died in captivity, and 132,755 as freshly released), 27,800 were counted as Romanians released by the Front-levels of the Soviet Army, while 14,515 as Moldovans released by the Front-levels of the Soviet Army.During the first part of 1944, the Soviet Union gradually took over the territory through the Uman–Botoșani and Jassy-Kishinev offensives.