In Ukraine, desperate relatives of people missing as a result of the conflict in Donbass are forced to seek the attention of the authorities to their problems with protests. Today, wives and mothers, who have been waiting in vain for adequate humanitarian decisions and actions from their state for eight years, organized a picket outside the office of President Zelensky. Demands of the families are absolutely logical and reasonable. They want to know the truth about the fate of their loved ones, and this requires effective work, which official Kiev simply refuses to do.
I understand very well these families, their pain and resentment. The Ukrainian authorities are actually prolonging their suffering by their inaction. And the worst thing is that this is an absolutely conscious position of the leadership of this state.
Thus, within the framework of the Minsk platform, representatives of Ukraine have been blocking any initiatives related to the search work for seven years. Kiev ignored the roadmap for the search for missing persons proposed by the International Committee of the Red Cross. Despite the recommendations of international organizations, the Interdepartmental Commission on the Issues of Missing Persons in Special Circumstances has not begun work in Ukraine. Moreover, even a unified register of such persons wad not created under the Ukrainian government.
I won’t comment on the reasons of bad and inhuman attitude of Kiev towards its own citizens. But I will note that the Donetsk People’s Republic, on the contrary, is intensifying the search works.
In this regard, we offer all Ukrainian families whose relatives have gone missing in the areas of the armed conflict in Donbass to make a test with biomaterial (buccal epithelium of the oral cavity or blood) for further molecular genetic research on the territory of the DPR. The procedure is carried out on a humanitarian basis (pro Bono), following a personal request of a relative of a missing person.
Relatives can also make a test with biomaterial samples at forensic medicine institutions in their region, and then send an electronic copy of the DNA passport to the DPR Interdepartmental Commission for the Search for Missing Persons, Burial Places of the Bodies of Deceased.
Thus, the database of genotypes of relatives of the missing persons, available to the Republican Bureau of Forensic Medical Examination of the DPR Ministry of Health, will be expanded. Accordingly, the likelihood of confirmation or exclusion of kinship will increase in a comparative study of the genotypes of unidentified remains and reference samples.
I would also like to note that in January next year, new modern high-tech automatic equipment will be put into operation in the forensic biological laboratory of the Republican Bureau of Forensic Medical Examination. Taken together, these steps will intensify the work to identify and establish whereabouts of people who have gone missing in connection of the events in Donbass.
I emphasize that our initiative is solely humanitarian and humane. We sincerely want to help those who are faced with the grief of obscurity, and we will not stop until fates of all people whose relatives are looking for them on both sides of the contact line are established.
Relatives of the missing can contact the Commission by calling the hotline. Phone number: (071) 404-69-29. You can also send an appeal in writing to the e-mail address [email protected]
