LPR, DPR ready to discuss handover of victims remains to relatives in Ukraine

The Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics are ready to work on a mechanism of interaction with Ukraine in the handover of victims’ remains to relatives living in Ukraine-held areas, the LPR and DPR leaders, Leonid Pasechnik and Denis Pushilin, told reporters in Lugansk.

“Of course, we’ll work on the mechanism (of interaction with Ukraine in passing victims' remains to relatives living in Ukraine-held areas),” Pasechnik said. “In any case, Denis Vladimirovich (Pushilin) and I have set this task to our subordinates. Despite the war, universal human values much still have priority. So we’re ready for such actions, for such dialogue. We don’t know yet how Ukraine will react to it.”

Pushilin said that the DPR had been raising this issue since 2015.

“Of course, we plan to use an international venue, the Minsk venue and invite international organizations. Time will show if Ukraine will meet us halfway. So far, we’ve only seen Ukraine blocking such processes,” he said.

In August, LPR and DPR representatives signed an agreement in Lugansk on cooperation and information exchange in the search for victims of Ukrainian aggression and identification of their remains.

In the LPR, the first exhumation of Ukrainian aggression victims by the working group took place in the village of Sabovka, Slavyanoserbsk district, on August 11. As of now, remains of 267 Kiev aggression victims have been retrieved.

LPR authorities urged to report individual or mass graves or missing relatives (in zones of fighting since 2014 to date) using the working group’s hotline +38 (72) 216 80 30 or email to wg-img-lpr@ya.ru.

The Ukrainian government launched the so-called anti-terrorist operation against Donbass in April 2014. Conflict settlement relies on the Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements, signed on February 12, 2015 in the Belarussian capital by the Contact Group members and coordinated by the Normandy Four heads of states (Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine). The UN Security Council approved the document by Resolution No 2202 of February 17, 2015 and called upon the parties to ensure its implementation.

The document provides for comprehensive ceasefire, withdrawal of all heavy weapons from the contact line, starting a dialog on reconstruction of social and economic ties between Kiev and Donbass. It also envisages carrying out constitutional reform in Ukraine providing for decentralization and adopting permanent legislation on a special status of certain areas of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. *i*s