The government has approved amendments to Article 11 of the law “On the legal status of persons missing under special circumstances,” Taras Melnychuk, the government representative in the Verkhovna Rada, reported on Telegram.
The changes provide that during martial law and within a year after the abolition of the powers of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to create search groups, such groups will be formed with the consent of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War.
It is also stipulated that the Coordination Headquarters will have the right to hold negotiations with humanitarian missions, public associations and individuals who carry out activities in the temporarily occupied territories in order to search for missing persons.
Since May 2023, Ukraine has had a Unified Register of Missing Persons, which includes about 23,000 people considered missing under special circumstances – due to military operations. General information about servicemen who are wanted is added to the register by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In September 2023, the Cabinet of Ministers adopted a resolution on the transfer of the functions of the Commissioner for Missing Persons to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Defense and the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War.
