Donetsk, Sep 30 - DAN. Ukrainian representatives in the subgroup on humanitarian issues have ignored Donetsk and Lugansk’s attempts to launch cooperation in the search for missing persons, Donetsk People’s Republic ombudswoman, DPR representative in the humanitarian subgroup Darya Morozova told reporters on Thursday.
“We had a new round of talks in the subgroup this week,” Morozova said. “We raised the issue of the missing persons as we understand that it requires close cooperation with Ukraine. However, Ukraine did not support our project. We’d very much like to believe that Ukrainian authorities will change their approach to the issue and that the three sides will be able to launch full-fledged work on it.”
In early September, she said that the DPR and the LPR in the humanitarian subgroup had been unable to make any progress with Ukraine since 2015. Kiev ignores any initiatives on the matter, be they from the Republics or international organizations. “It is another proof of the fact that the ideas of peace and humanity are alien to Ukraine, and that it is not interested in Donbass residents’ problems, to put it mildly,” the ombudswoman said back then.
In the summer of 2021, the DPR and the LPR set up inter-departmental commissions to step up the search for missing persons. They include representatives of the Republics’ leadership, law-enforcement bodies and expert organizations. The Commissions organize the search for the missing persons, gather information on them, create a single database of the missing and deceased and their relatives, and coordinate exhumation, identification and handover of bodies to relatives. In Donetsk, the Commission is led by ombudswoman Darya Morozova. The Lugansk Commission is headed by LPR First Deputy Foreign Minister Anna Soroka. *jk