REUTERS

A meeting of the working group on persons who had gone missing in Donbas, as well as military and civilian hostages (prisoners) took place at the Presidential Office.

"A representative of the civilian-military cooperation department of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Mykhailo Kotelevsky, noted that in 2019, together with the investigative structures of the National Police and the SBU, 13 exhumations were carried out. Six bodies have been identified. Families of the victims were allowed to conduct the required examinations," the report said.

Several representatives of NGOs noted flaws in the exhumation procedure, while the coordinator of the working group, Mykola Kolesnik, said the group would turn to the relevant authorities with a call to streamline the procedure.

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Representative of the Department for Prisoner Release at the Ministry of Defense, Volodymyr Maksimchenko, said that work is underway in Donetsk and Luhansk regions on searching for missing persons.

Also, the participants considered the issue of fully resuming the work of the Center for prisoner release and search for missing persons at the Security Service of Ukraine.

Deputy Minister for Veterans, Temporarily Occupied Territories and Internally Displaced Persons, Oleksiy Ilyashenko, informed the members of the working group about the proposals for the draft law on the social and legal protection of persons deprived of liberty as a result of armed aggression against Ukraine.

It is proposed to regulate the legal status of persons who have gone missing in special circumstances.

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"Armed conflict, military operations, temporary occupation of part of the state's territory, unrest within the country, natural or man-made emergencies are considered special circumstances," the deputy minister explained.