Fifty three persons that went missing during Euromaidan still not found

Along with the activists killed or wounded during Euromaidan there are persons who went missing at that time, some of them possibly activists.

Maidan Search Initiative is a group of volunteers that started searching for missing persons in February 2014. Since then they have used both physical and legal methods of search, searched the areas in and around Kyiv including underwater and underground ones, sent information queries to various institutions including law enforcement agencies and even the crematorium, volunteers say.

Over the two years over 950 persons claimed as missing were found, 17 of them were dead, said Taras Matviyiv, coordinator of the Maidan Search Initiative. However not all of the people who went missing during Euromaidan are activists. Current number of persons who went missing during Euromaidan and who have not been found until now is 53.

Volunteers say only four criminal cases pertaining to the missing ones are currently open. They also note that there are many discrepancies in the information that law enforcement provides to them responding to their queries. However volunteers note good cooperation with the criminal search department of the National Police.

Mother of missing Euromaidan activist Serhiy Novitsky Iryna Savchenko said she did not know her son was at Euromaidan. She has no information on his whereabouts until now. She said she wrote numerous appeals to law enforcement agencies and to the President and got no response.

Mother of Serhiy Novitsky who went missing during Euromaidan has no information on his whereabouts until now. Photo: uacrisis.org

Volunteers of the Maidan Search Initiative also emphasize that they got piles of information that they are ready to share and that engaging police and prosecutor's office into this process is key at current stage.

Video and more detailed text materials of the press conference are here.




EMPR