Relatives of the missing persons have already received more than 62,000 extracts from the Unified Register of Persons Missing in Special Circumstances about the status of their loved ones.
This was reported in an interview with Ukrinform by Artur Dobroserdov, the Commissioner for Persons Missing in Special Circumstances.
“Citizens have already received more than 62,000 such extracts, but some families have received these extracts more than once. For example, the wife could order the extract once, then the mother of the missing person, then when applying for certain social benefits or guarantees, there could be a requirement to issue a more recent extract,” he said.
According to the Commissioner, for a family today, this extract can be the basis for postponing the mobilization of another family member, for applying for a survivor’s pension, for processing documents for obtaining financial support for the family of a serviceman who went missing, etc.
Dobroserdov also pointed out that it is inadmissible to exclude prisoners from the Register of Missing Persons under special circumstances, as this would narrow the rights of this group of people, which is illegal.
According to the Commissioner, when they receive confirmation of captivity through the Red Cross, they do not know where the person is – there is simply the fact that the citizen is indeed in captivity in the Russian Federation.
“If we have not established the whereabouts of this citizen, we have no right to stop the search. We understand for sure that this person is not free in his or her actions, movements and the realization of his or her intentions, so the search is not terminated. The status of a missing person confers certain rights on both the missing person and his or her family. If we exclude prisoners from this register, we will be narrowing their rights, and this is illegal,” he emphasized.
Therefore, according to Dobroserdov, all those who are in captivity should still be in this register and have the status of missing persons, because they disappeared under such circumstances.
The Commissioner also explained the difference between deported and displaced persons and missing persons.
According to him, there is a separate register of displaced and deported persons, including children, and a register of missing persons.
“Deported and displaced people are more about the civilian population that remained in the occupied territory. This is when the occupation authorities forcibly demand that a certain person/group of people move within the occupied territory (this will be illegal displacement) or move to another territory – but to the aggressor country (this will be deported),” he said.
Dobroserdov noted that not all of these people have lost contact with all of them and the Ukrainian authorities do not know their fate.
“If there is no contact with such families at all and we do not know about their fate, then criminal proceedings are registered and, accordingly, they acquire the status of missing persons under special circumstances,” the commissioner said.
Dobroserdov also informed that the Unified Register of Persons Missing in Special Circumstances currently contains 866 court decisions declaring people dead.
According to him, some families have information that the missing person has actually died, but there is no body and it is impossible to register the fact of death in the Civil Status Register.
“In fact, there should be a medical certificate of death, and until the doctor examines the body, such a certificate is not issued. Therefore, families have the right – not an obligation, but the right – to go to court with certain relevant evidence, factual data, and the court may make this decision based on the results of such a claim,” he said.
Dobroserdov explained that this decision has a greater impact on the family’s ability to dispose of certain property, including military property, i.e., the ability to divide property in the order of inheritance, to file certain applications for damaged/destroyed property, the wife, for example, can file for divorce and resolve a number of other domestic issues related, among other things, to joint children, etc.
“The search for such a defense lawyer as a missing person does not stop. The search is terminated either if he returns alive, or if an investigation is conducted and the investigator or prosecutor issues a decision to identify the body,” the Commissioner assured.
As Ukrinform reported, the Unified Register of Persons Missing in Special Circumstances was launched in May 2023.
Photo: ArmyInform
Source: Dobroserdov: Ukrainians have received over 62,000 extracts from the Register of Missing Persons
