Ukraine launches new missing persons register

A register of missing persons has been launched in Ukraine, the Reintegration Ministry reported on May 2.  

The register will include basic information such as the person's name, place and date of birth, marital status, place of residence, last known location, circumstances and time of their disappearance, the ministry wrote.

The register was developed by the Internal Affairs Ministry along with the Commissioner for Missing Persons, as well as other agencies.

Additionally, the register will include data "to facilitate the search for a person," such as the presence or absence of a court decision to recognize people as missing or declared dead.

A missing person's status will be reflected in the register one month after the data has been entered.

"The availability of centralized information on missing persons will help to establish a more efficient search operation. Only by cooperating with other agencies will we be able to find the missing persons as quickly as possible," Commissioner for Missing Persons Oleh Kotenko said.

According to the International Commission on Missing Persons, the circumstances under which people have disappeared during Russia's all-out war against Ukraine include "forcible deportations, summary executions, arbitrary and incommunicado detention, kidnapping and abduction, and family separation."

Tens of thousands of people, including both soldiers and civilians, have gone missing since 2014, when Russia illegally annexed the Crimean peninsula and invaded Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.

The number has only risen since Russia launched its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022.

Kotenko said on April 18 that more than 7,000 Ukrainian service members are currently considered missing.

According to the Ukrainian official, about 60-65% of missing persons usually turn out to be in captivity, while the rest might no longer be alive.

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