On the part of the DPR, the interdepartmental commission on the search for the missing was headed by the Republic's ombudsman Daria Morozova.

She spoke at a briefing with a detailed report.

“Since 2014, in the territory of the Donetsk People's Republic alone, more than 5 thousand people have become victims of the armed aggression of Ukraine, including 91 children.

Another 8 thousand people were injured.

More than 1.6 thousand people received disabilities of varying degrees, ”said Morozova.

  • Destruction in a residential apartment building damaged during an artillery shelling by Ukrainian security forces of the city of Maryinka near Donetsk

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  • © Mikhail Voskresensky

According to the commission, more than 9 thousand citizens have suffered as a result of the conflict in the DPR.

At least 879 people survived the Ukrainian captivity.

Currently, Ukraine is illegally holding another 92 supporters of the republic.

“Since 2014, during the search work on the territory of the DPR, 130 graves of missing persons have been discovered,” Daria Morozova summed up the results.

- Found 253 dead.

As a rule, the bodies found have clear signs of torture and abuse. "

As a result of the shelling of Ukrainian aviation and artillery, 23 thousand private houses and buildings were destroyed, almost 5 thousand apartment buildings were damaged. 

  • A local resident in the courtyard of a residential building destroyed as a result of shelling by Ukrainian security forces in the city of Horlivka, Donetsk region

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  • © Igor Maslov

Luhansk front

The LPR was represented at the briefing by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic, Anna Soroka.

She heads the commission for the search for missing persons in Luhansk.

“The war has been going on for the eighth year.

The state of Ukraine is pursuing a policy of genocide against Donbass, Anna Soroka said during the briefing.

"As a result of this (on the territory of the LPR. -

RT

), more than 2 thousand civilians are registered as dead and missing, 35 children were killed."

The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the LPR also told what the large number of unidentified bodies of civilians is connected with and why it is not so easy to establish their identity.

According to Anna Soroka, due to the high intensity of shelling in Luhansk in the summer and autumn of 2014, civilians died on the streets of the city, and the local morgue was simply overcrowded - it was not always possible to deliver the dead civilians there. 

  • A resident of Lugansk near a private house destroyed during the shelling of the city by the Ukrainian army

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  • © Mikhail Voskresensky

Also, in the conditions of the shelling, it was extremely difficult to establish the identity of the victims, if they did not have any documents with them.

That is why unknown citizens killed by Ukrainian artillery were often buried not far from the place of death: in yards, vegetable gardens, as well as in other open areas. 

Consolidation of efforts

The places of mass graves of Luhansk residents were marked and entered into a special register, so most of them are known.

Now the problem is that the identities of all the victims have not yet been established, their relatives have not been found.

Now a joint interdepartmental commission, which will include specialists from both the DPR and LPR, will be engaged in the search for the missing, the identification of the dead, the search and identification of the relatives of those killed. 

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For more efficient work, a new systematic approach to this problem will be implemented.

The head of the Republican Bureau of Forensic Medical Examination of the Ministry of Health of the DPR Dmitry Kalashnikov told about this to the journalists.

“LPR and DPR jointly plan to create two databases of genotypes for identifying unknown victims.

The first database will contain the genotypes of the victims themselves, the second - the genotypes of the relatives of the missing citizens, ”Dmitry Kalashnikov shared his plans.

Comparison of biological data from these two databases will make it possible to establish the identity of the anonymous dead citizens of Donbass.

Currently, this work has already begun, a plan for exhumation has been drawn up, forensic medical examinations are planned.

The armed conflict in Donbass began in the spring of 2014, after the Kiev interim government, which came to power as a result of a coup d'etat, sent an army to Donetsk and Luhansk to reassign local governments.

The war between the once citizens of a single peaceful state has been going on for more than seven years.