According to Ukraine's Security Service (SBU), there are 294 persons missing in Donbas, First Deputy Speaker of the Ukrainian parliament and Ukraine's envoy to the Trilateral Contact Group's (TCG) humanitarian subgroup Iryna Gerashchenko has said.

"We are using the list of hostages and persons missing put together by the SBU," Gerashchenko said during a press conference in Kyiv.

She added that according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRR), more than 1,000 bodies have not been identified.

"The Ukrainian side, agencies, which have searched for missing persons, have done all they can do to find people and identify them," Gerashchenko said, adding that in 2017 some 71 corpses were found, 18 of which were turned over to occupation forces in Donbas. In addition, in February 2018, two corpses of Russian citizens were turned over to Russia.

Gerashchenko said the ICRR has limited access to the occupied areas in Donbas and that their representatives have not once been allowed to visit prisons there or in Russia where Ukrainian prisoners are held. She blamed Russia for blocking progress in identifying missing persons and returning their remains.