Today, 3 December, on the Day of the Unknown Soldier, the DPR Ministry of Information presented the documentary “Unknown…”. The work is dedicated to the memory of the heroes who laid down their heads, defending the Motherland, whose names were never established. The video covers both the events of the Great Patriotic War and the conflict unleashed by Ukraine in 2014. The work of the Interdepartmental Commission for the Search for Missing Persons, Burial Places of Bodies (remains) of the Deceased (dead) in the Areas of the Armed Conflict in Donbass, which is headed by Ombudsman Daria Morozova, is reflected in a separate block of the film.
The presentation took place in the course of a thematic commemorative event in the Donetsk Republican Museum of Local History with the participation of representatives of ministries and departments, military archaeologists, students, pupils of the public movement “Molodaya Gvardiya-Yunarmiya”, cadets of the Republican educational institution “School No. 4 – Cadet Corps named after A. V. Zakharchenko”.
During the meeting, the scale of the problem of the disappearance of people as a result of hostilities was emphasized, as well as the importance of work to establish their names and destinies.
For Donbass, the Day of the Unknown Soldier is a date filled with special meaning. Today we honour not only the memory of heroic ancestors – fallen soldiers of the Great Patriotic War. The modern generation of Donbass residents has had a chance to face the tragedy of the disappearance of people in the course of hostilities face to face.
Roman Savchenko, Deputy Head of the Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman in the DPR, Secretary of the Interdepartmental Commission, spoke about the search work in the context of the conflict in Donbass.
According to him, the search for the missing has been carried out in the DPR literally from the first days of the conflict. Now search tasks are being solved at the state level, and a special Interdepartmental Commission has been created to consolidate efforts in this direction.
“Since 2014, the remains of over 150 victims of Ukrainian aggression have been recovered from unnamed graves in the territory of the Republic. As a rule, bodies in civilian clothes, that is, civilians are removed. Virtually all corpses have injuries specific to armed conflicts. The identities of 44 people have been identified through molecular genetic research” said Roman Savchenko.
The secretary of the Interdepartmental Commission stressed that at the moment about 40% of the total number of places of mass graves of victims of the Ukrainian aggression have been discovered and opened in the DPR. Another 320 people are reported missing in connection with the conflict.
Search work in the Republic continues.
“This is the most important of the humanitarian tasks, as well as part of a large amount of work to collect evidence of Ukraine’s war crimes in Donbass. We will not forget and will not forgive” summed up Roman Savchenko.
