The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine declares the urgent need to resolve the problem of searching for missing persons and identifying the dead in Donbas, indicating that more than 400 people are missing in the ATO zone.

"The search for missing persons and the identification of the bodies of those killed as a result of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine in Donbas remains one of the most painful humanitarian problems that need urgent resolution. According to the United Center for the Coordination of Search, release of persons illegally deprived of their liberty, hostages and locating of people went missing in the ATO area, more than 400 people are now reported missing," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on the occasion of the International Day of the Disappeared.

The Foreign Ministry sais that the search for these persons is impossible because of the obstacles on the part of the Russian-terrorist forces and their systematic access to international humanitarian organizations to the territory of certain regions of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

As for the situation in the occupied Crimea, among the violations committed by Russia, particular indignation is caused by the facts of the abduction and disappearance of Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars who are pursued by the occupation authorities for a political or civic position.

"The Ukrainian side is deeply grateful to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) as a neutral facilitator for active participation in the resolution of the problem of missing persons and providing support to their families. We hope for the continuation of this important humanitarian mission of the ICRC, in particular in the occupied territories, access to which is temporary unavailable for the Ukrainian side," the statement by the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry reads.