You're reading: Some 650 people still missing in east Ukraine; Red Cross should join search effort, Kyiv says

Ukraine's First Deputy Parliamentary Speaker Iryna Geraschenko said there are 648 missing people in Donbas, and the search for them continues.

Geraschenko represents Ukraine in the humanitarian subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group, which mediates the conflict in the country’s east.

“Our task is to search for these people. The Red Cross must be given access to search efforts in the occupied territory,” she was quoted by the Verkhovna Rada spokesperson as saying at a meeting with Malgorzata Gosiewska, deputy head of the Polish Sejm foreign affairs committee.

“It is impractical to attempt to tie hostage release to the amnesty, as there will be no amnesty unless the hostilities stop,” she said

Geraschenko ruled out any talks, for now, of “ending anti-Russian sanctions since the Russian Federation has implemented none of the conditions of the Minsk agreements.”