Donetsk, Sep 9 - DAN. Ukrainian authorities have been blocking all proposals on joint efforts in the search for missing persons in Donbass since 2015, Donetsk People’s Republic ombudswoman Darya Morozova told the Donetsk News Agency on Thursday.​

“The search for the persons who went missing during the Donbass conflict and identification of bodies are among the key items on the agenda of the subgroup (on humanitarian issues - eds Donetsk News Agency),” Morozova said. “However, no progress on this track has been made at the Minsk talks since 2015. Kiev ignores all DPR initiatives including the proposal to set up a joint search mechanism.”

Ukrainian negotiators even block the discussion of the handover of identified remains. The ombudswoman reminded that the opponents had not responded to the search mechanism proposal brought forward by the International Committee of the Red Cross.

“Kiev ignores even the humanitarian initiatives of 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,” Morozova said.

In July, the DPR and the LPR set up inter-departmental commissions on the search for the missing persons in their territory. They are tasked with arranging the search, composing a register of the missing, and coordinating exhumation, identification of bodies and their handover to relatives.

In Donetsk, the Commission is led by Darya Morozova. The first bodies were exhumed in Snezhnoye in eastern DPR in mid-August. Nineteen people had been interred there, according to the latest reports. Two days ago, exhumation began in Debaltsevo; the first results have already been reported.*jk